Another Year, No Improvement
This year’s Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia finds that while there was a slight decrease in child poverty nationally between 2013 and 2014, the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia remains stubbornly high. According to the report card, Nova Scotia’s child poverty rate (22.5%) represents 37,450 children—or more than 1 in 5 children—living in poverty in 2014. Nova Scotia now has the third-highest provincial child poverty rate, and the highest rate in Atlantic Canada.
While it will be a few more years before the data captures the impact of the new investment in the Canada Child Benefit, this year’s report card makes clear that unless governments address the broader structures of inequality, we are not likely to see progress for the most vulnerable children in the province.
Read the news release here
