N.S. child poverty dropped in 2020 due to pandemic-related financial support: report
CTV
A report has found that child poverty numbers in Nova Scotia dropped dramatically in 2020 -- an improvement that researchers say was driven by pandemic financial assistance.
A report has found that child poverty numbers in Nova Scotia dropped dramatically in 2020 -- an improvement that researchers say was driven by pandemic financial assistance.
The report, released Thursday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives based on Statistics Canada data, found that in 2020 Nova Scotia had a child poverty rate of 18.4 per cent, down from 24.3 per cent a year earlier.
Christine Saulnier, the Nova Scotia director of the think tank, said that the one-year drop in the number of children living below the poverty line in the province is "historic" and is directly tied to government financial support.
"It really tells us that significant investment makes a huge difference, and it can be done in a short time period," Saulnier said in an interview.
The report found that 14,500 Nova Scotian children would have been under the poverty line in 2020 if their families had not received pandemic government benefits, including the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and Canada Recovery Benefit. More than 569,000 Nova Scotians received some form of pandemic financial relief that year.
"Not only did the temporary pandemic benefits stop people from falling into poverty, it actually lifted almost 15,000 more children in Nova Scotia out of poverty," Saulnier said. "We've never seen our rates go down so much."
Of the more than $2 billion that Nova Scotians received in pandemic government assistance in 2020, 99 per cent came from Ottawa.
