A new Statistics Canada study on poverty in Canada paints a picture that is both encouraging and disturbing.

On the positive side, it suggests that between 50 and 60 percent of the people who fall below the poverty line in any given year will manage to pull themselves out of poverty within twelve months.

On the negative side, it shows that children are more likely to live in poverty for long periods than adults.

According to the study, between 1993 and 1998, nearly one-third of Canadian children had lived in poverty for a year or more.

Some of these children were from lone-parent families – which have traditionally had the most difficult time making ends meet – but many were not.

What the study reveals, says AFL president Les Steel, is that our system is letting families down just when they need help most – when they’re raising young children.