Raising large families becoming difficult in Canada

By Alexandra Latremouille

As the gap between the economic classes expands, it is becoming more difficult for middle-income couples to raise large families.

According to MoneySense.ca, the average annual cost to raise a child in Canada to age 18 is $12,825. In total, that is $243,660, 4.9 times more than the average Ontarian’s annual income, at $49,088, according to Workopolis.

This cost is causing some couples to limit the number of children they have. Jessica Sylvestre, a local mother of three, said she would have more children if she and her spouse had larger, more stable incomes.

“Essentially, we’d have 10 if it wasn’t for the demands of being a full-time working mother,” said Sylvestre, a funeral director at Families First Funeral Home. “To be able to have more children in this economy…it would require me to earn a greater income.”

Sylvestre said she and her husband budget their finances to properly meet their family’s needs. This often involves allocating their leisure money to the needs of their children. A financial service representative at the Toronto Dominion Bank said budgeting like this is important for families in their situation.

“It’s so important to make a budget, especially for families who don’t have large or regular incomes,” said Vushaun Landrum, who works at TD’s St. Clair Beach branch. “For example, if they can afford it, 10 per cent of their money should go into a savings account.”

Landrum said couples should invest and also place about 30-40 per cent of their finances into bills. As well, he said they should start education funds, especially if their children want to go to university.

“That’s our main thing for now, to be honest,” said Landrum. “To my knowledge, not too many things are geared toward parents with three or more kids, per se…I wish there were more things the government was doing to encourage budgeting, especially for these families with many kids in the household.”

On its website the Government of Canada lists legislation benefiting families, including an enhanced Universal Child Care Benefit and the Family Tax Cut. However, critics of the latter, such as Kathleen Lahey, a professor of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, said only the nation’s highest earners profit from this plan. While the top one per cent of families receive a $6,500 annual tax cut, the lower 60 per cent get a $50 yearly tax break.

However, not all people believe it is solely the government’s duty to support families.

“When you choose to have a family, I don’t know if it’s the government’s responsibility to care for them,” said Sylvestre. “It’s really wonderful we live in Canada and even have some rights that benefit us, such as maternity leave…not all countries have that, so I’m really fortunate to live here.”

Ultimately, financial difficulties associated with rearing multiple children are having effects on Canada’s population growth rates, according to MoneySense’s editor-in-chief Duncan Hood. It is currently at one per cent annually, and only a third of that number is caused by new births.