The 2021 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia adds to a growing list of prior report cards that mostly tell the same story. Children’s poverty is family poverty. For many years there has been close to 1 in 4 children living in families with incomes below the Low-Income Measure poverty line in Nova Scotia. For many years Nova Scotia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Atlantic Canada, and the third-highest provincial rate in Canada. For decades welfare rates remained stuck in time—stagnant despite the evidence that they have left people, families, and children, living in deep poverty. Behind these numbers are real people: parents choosing between paying rent, buying groceries, and heating homes; precarious employment that puts stress on families; the inability to engage in community life through opportunities that make life worthwhile.
Report Card