With Canada’s divorce rate nearing 50 percent and more and more couples opting to cohabitate rather than get married, single-parent families are becoming increasingly common in our country.

While many consider the family structure to be a private matter, the breakdown of the traditional family affects all Canadians. The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) estimates the cost of serving broken families is $7 billion annually. The IMFC says if the rate of family breakdown was cut by half, there would be substantial savings because some families would no longer be living in poverty.

The most drastic difference in income between lone-parent families and two-parent families is in Saskatchewan, where single-parent families are more than five times as likely to fall below Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut-Off.

A child raised by one parent in Saskatchewan is 11.3 times more likely to grow up dependent on welfare. In our province, 13.9 percent of one-parent families are on welfare, compared with 1.2 percent of two-parent homes.

Family breakdown and the poverty that results puts a financial strain on all taxpayers as the government does its best to support single parents through income supplements, child care subsidies and housing initiatives.

There are situations where, due to death, abandonment or an unhealthy relationship, Canadians have no choice but to become single parents. The IMFC suggests that, if more effort was taken to strengthen the family as an institution and better prepare adolescents for marriage, fewer relationships would end in divorce and, fewer Canadian families would therefore experience poverty.

Children who are raised in a stable, two-parent home are less likely to become pregnant out of wedlock or end up in poverty. Marriage presents a wide range of social, economic and personal benefits to individuals and the nation as a whole.

Rather than dismiss the traditional nuclear family as “out-dated” and “old-fashioned,” Canadians should embrace the family values that have served our nation for decades.

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The audio version of Garry's July 27, 2009 op-ed column can be heard by clicking here