The proportion of B.C. children living in poverty has risen, marking the eighth straight year that the province has claimed the highest after-tax rate in the country.

About 137,000 children in this province are poor, according to an annual report released Wednesday by First Call BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Using Statistics Canada's low income cut-offs before tax, the proportion of children living in poverty rose from 14.5 per cent in 2008 to 16.4 per cent a year later. That makes B.C.'s rate only slightly lower than Manitoba's 16.8 per cent and much higher than the national average of 14 per cent.

When the child poverty rate is calculated after tax, B.C. scores the highest percentage in the country.

Lorraine Copas, director of the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C., says the latest numbers are distressing.

"A 16.4-per-cent child poverty rate actually translates into 137,000 children in this province who are living without the basic essentials, without a safe and secure place to live, without enough food to eat, without the kind of opportunities that we want to give our children," she told reporters.

One bright note in the otherwise grim report shows that the poverty rate among children of single mothers dropped to 24.2 per cent from 30.9 per cent the year before.

Copas says that's good news for single mothers but bad news for everybody else. Poverty among two-parent families has risen from 12.2 per cent to 15 per cent, and nearly three-quarters of poor children live in two-parent families.

"That's almost worse. You could understand that single-parent families living on a single income might be falling into low income," Copas said.

Susan Lambert, president of the BC Teachers' Federation, says the stats are unacceptable in a province that hosted the Olympics and sheared off mountaintops to build the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

"We have the highest average wealth in Canada, the greatest gap between the wealthiest and the poorest households, the lowest corporate tax rate -- not only in Canada but in the entire G7," she said.

"And yet, year after year, our friends at First Call come and give us this report card, and year after year, teachers continue to witness the cost of government inaction."

She says that the government needs to change its priorities now to make sure that child poverty doesn't continue to get worse.

Only B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan have not adopted comprehensive anti-poverty plans. The First Call report recommends that the province appoint a cabinet minister responsible for developing and implementing an anti-poverty strategy.

But Children and Families Minister Mary McNeil that while she's not happy about the province's record on child poverty, it isn't just the government's problem.

"I believe that regional poverty reduction strategies are the way to go," she said, noting that municipalities, non-profits and other service providers should all be brought into the discussion.

She said the regional strategy should be about helping, "springboard families out of poverty and not just give them nets to fall back in."

The minister added that Premier Christy Clark's strategy to bring more jobs to B.C. should help improve poverty rates.

Concerns about income inequality, immigrant children

The First Call report notes that incomes for some of the poorest families in B.C. have actually decreased in the last decade, while the average earnings of the richest 10 per cent rose by 54 per cent.

In 2009, the richest 10 per cent made 13.5 times more money than the poorest 10 per cent. That marks a jump from a 9-to-1 ratio a decade earlier.

The report says that the recent decision to raise B.C.'s minimum wage to $10.25 is welcome, but the increase just isn't enough to change the lives of the province's poorest people.

"Even with the increases planned for next May, full-time, full-year workers living on their own will wind up about $4,000 below the poverty line for a large city," the report says.

About half of B.C.'s poorest children live in families where at least one parent works full-time, year-round.

The report's authors calculated a "living wage" to provide a budget for only the most necessary expenses. In Metro Vancouver, they say, families require at least $18.81 an hour for both parents working full time to make ends meet.

The report recommends that the minimum wage should rise to $11 an hour by this time next year, then to $12 in May 2013, and then continue to increase every year along with the cost of living.

The report also raises serious concerns about poverty among children of newcomers to Canada. The child poverty rate for families that immigrated between 2001 and 2006 was a whopping 49.6 per cent, and new immigrant families made a median income just barely above the poverty line.

At the same time, only 0.7 per cent of immigrant families in B.C. receive welfare, compared to 2.6 per cent of Canadian-born families.

"Many newcomer children are spending their entire childhood and teen years living in poverty, with all the attendant vulnerabilities this creates. It makes no sense for governments to recruit highly-skilled and well-educated immigrants and then promote or turn a blind eye to employment practices that consign them to low-paid and insecure jobs," the report says.

Statistics Canada has estimated that it would require about $3.87 billion to bring every British Columbian above the poverty line, or about nine per cent of the province's annual budget.

While that might seem like a lot, First Call points out that a recent study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimated that poverty costs as much as $9 billion annually for things like health care, crime and loss of productivity.

The poverty line for a family of four living in a big city in 2009 was a combined income of $41,307.