A young Glace Bay woman is speaking out about how child poverty can affect a person's mental health. According to the latest report card on child and family poverty in Nova Scotia, one in three children in the CBRM live in poverty.
Measures to keep Canada's stretched baby formula supplies from spiralling into shortage like that seen in the United States are unlikely to offer immediate relief, experts say.
Halifax, NS The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) released the 2021 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia: Worst Provincial Performance over 30 Years . This report provides the 2021 Child and Family Poverty rates for Nova Scotia, based on 2019 data, the most recent available data.
Over 41,000 children in Nova Scotia are living below the poverty line.
The report shows a jump in the percentage of children living in low-income households from 2017 at 24.2 per cent to 2018 at 24.6 per cent.
This amounts to 41,370 kids living in poverty in the province.
“I struggle to find the words to describe how I feel about that,” said Lesley Frank, primary author of the report and Acadia University Professor said in a press release.
“I move between anger, sadness, to embarrassment – and an overwhelming sense of worry for families struggling through hardship now.”
In a breakdown, the report shows the higher rates of poverty coincide with areas that are more rural than others, with the highest rates going to Cape Breton (34.9), Annapolis (34), and Digby (33.1).