Dr. Lesley Frank co-authors 2017 Report on Child and Family Poverty in NS
Co-authored by Lesley Frank (Acadia University Sociology) and Christine Saulnier (Nova Scotia Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), the 2017 Report on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia was released today.
The report reveals that 35,870 children in Nova Scotia were living in poverty in 2015, a slight decrease from 2014. Frank asserts, “We should celebrate the fact that 1,600 children were lifted out of poverty between 2014 and 2015. However, at 21.6%, child poverty decreased by less than a percentage point, and we lost ground relative to other provinces. Nova Scotia had the third-highest provincial child poverty rate, and the highest rate in Atlantic Canada.”
The report highlights how poverty rates vary between Nova Scotian communities, and reveals troubling inequities among children based on race and ethnicity.
“We must ensure that more efforts are made to reduce poverty for families who are at greater risk of living in poverty. These families face discrimination and additional barriers that are limiting their children’s ability to grow up healthy and to develop their potential towards full participation in society. In order for our efforts to be most effective, our government must develop public policy solutions that take into consideration these differences in order to get at the root causes of poverty,” says Saulnier.
The 2017 Report on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia can be accessed in full here.
Read more about the 2017 Report in The Chronicle Herald and on CBC.