A new report on child and family poverty rates in Nova Scotia has been released and with it numbers for the rates in Cape Breton. Jakob Postlewaite has the details.
Nova Scotia’s annual report card on child and family poverty is out, and it’s not looking good for Cape Breton.
The report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia, which examines data from 2022, found Cape Breton to have the third highest child poverty rate in Nova Scotia at 32.4%, coming behind Annapolis and Digby.
JoAnna LaTulippe-Rochon is the Executive Director Cape Breton Family Place Resource Centre and shared her thoughts about Cape Breton’s high child poverty rate.
“I really wasn’t surprised at all by the numbers because day in day out I see the results of people not having enough money in the work that we do,” says LaTulippe-Rochon. “What happens is people have too many days at the end of the month where they don’t have any access to resources that they need whether that’s money to pay the oil bill, to heat their homes or the electrical bill or whether it is enough food to put on the table for themselves and their children.”
She thinks the reasons for Cape Breton’s higher rates are lower average wages than the rest of the province, fewer stable employment opportunities and a lack of support for the social safety net.
Meanwhile, the rest of Nova Scotia also continues to face major issues with child poverty. The report says the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia increased from 20.5% in 2021 to 23.8% in 2022, an increase of 16%. Nova Scotia still has the highest child poverty rate in Atlantic Canada and the fifth highest in Canada.
Co-author of the report and Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia Dr. Christine Saulnier explained why the province has such high rates compared to the rest of Canada.
“The reason we’re seeing higher poverty rates in Nova Scotia and lower reduction in poverty over the past 35 years is that we haven’t seen our provincial government do enough while families have been facing higher costs of living. And while all of that has been very stressful for families, we haven’t seen our provincial government provide enough income support that’s sustaining.”
She says the province needs to match the federal government’s contributions to end child poverty, but the feds also need to go further.
