A new analysis of child poverty in Nova Scotia shows more children are being impacted in the province nearly 17 years after the federal government promised to eliminate the problem across Canada.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nova Scotia, found 22.5 per cent of children in the province live in relative poverty. That’s a 4.4-per-cent increase since members of Parliament unanimously voted in 1989 to eradicate child poverty by the dawn of the millennium.
The non-profit research organization defines relative poverty as families who live on half of the median Canadian income. The numbers in the report were collected in 2014.
Author Lesley Frank, a sociology professor at Acadia University, says a combination of economic factors and a “dysfunctional” federal-provincial social welfare system have seen an entire generation of grow up poor in the years since Ottawa missed its self-imposed deadline.
“Parents struggle to make school lunches, pay for school supplies and fees throughout the year, support their children in activities and sports, and to buy winter coats and boots,” said Frank in the report. “It is difficult for many to keep vehicles in working order, afford the minimum delivery of home heating oil, or pay childcare fees.”
Poverty rates varied based on where families live in the province due to employment opportunities and access to services that support labour force participation such as public transportation and child care.
Halifax was found to have the lowest rate of child poverty (18.8 per cent). Cape Breton ranked the highest (32.8 per cent).
Child poverty rates were found to be higher among indigenous children, racialized children, children with disabilities, and households with three or more children.
Indigenous families live in the greatest poverty, according to the study. The child-poverty rate in Eskasoni First Nation topped 75.6 per cent, the highest among the communities studied.
Nova Scotia’s youngest children were found to be disproportionately impacted, with a poverty rate of 27 per cent among kids six and under.
Unsurprisingly, single-parent households were also found to be at a greater risk due to weaker earning potential and greater difficulty caring for children while parents work. Slightly more than half fell below the relative poverty threshold.
Within that group, the study pointed to data from 2011 showing 45 per cent of female-headed single parent families were living in low-income circumstances, versus 23.7 per cent among those headed by men.
The study highlights the need to raise the earned incomes of families with children through more stable employment, noting part-time, low-wage positions without benefits have been on the rise since the 1990s.
“Although it is often assumed that working-full time is a pathway out of poverty, plenty of people who work at or around the minimum wage in Nova Scotia know a different reality,” said Frank.
Nova Scotia Community Services Minister Joanne Bernard called the study’s findings into question over the two year old numbers the research relied on.
“There’s been significant movement across Canada on child poverty, especially with the new child benefit tax system that came out from the federal government,” Bernard told CTV Atlantic.
The newly minted Canada Child Benefit will provide the average family with children under 18 an additional $2,300 in the 2016-17 benefit year, according to government sources.
The report applauds federal and provincial child benefits, but suggests the effectiveness of these efforts could be bolstered with a national child care policy, lower income thresholds for tax benefits, and easier access to employment insurance.
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron
