‘Robust’ plans needed to address poverty

A social policy group is calling on governments to join forces in addressing “shockingly high” rates of poverty in Nova Scotia.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ provincial office says comprehensive plans from the municipal level to the federal government are needed to help poor families, particularly the 35,870 children who live below the poverty line in Nova Scotia.

“A robust poverty reduction strategy says, ‘here’s our goal, here’s the timeline and here are all the various ways we need to come together as governments and all government levels to do this,’ ” Christine Saulnier, a coauthor of the 2017 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia, said in an interview on Monday.

The report, which was published today and used information from Statistics Canada’s 2015 data, found that the child poverty rate in the province decreased marginally, less than a percentage point, in 2015 compared to 2014.

But overall Nova Scotia has done “very poorly” in working to- ward the goal of eradicating poverty, the report said. More than one in five Nova Scotian children live in poverty and the 2015 rate is higher than it was in 1989.

“We’re third highest in terms of provincial child poverty rates and highest in Atlantic Canada,” said Saulnier, director of the CCPA’S Nova Scotia office and a co-author of the report with Lesley Frank, an associate professor in the department of sociology at Acadia University.

Saulnier singled out “shockingly high” rates among African Nova Scotian children at 40 per cent, 67.8 per cent in the Arabic community and over 70 per cent in some First Nations communities such as Eskasoni.

A family is considered to be living below the poverty line if its income after taxes is less than half of the national median income. The median family income in Canada in 2015 was $80,940, according to Statistics Canada. (It was $73,900 in Nova Scotia).

The Department of Community Services declined a request for an interview Monday with minister Kelly Regan.

“We have not yet seen the report so the minister is unable to comment at this time,” said spokeswoman Heather Fairbairn.

Elizabeth Goodridge of Halifax cited housing and food as the most difficult challenges she faces as a single mother of two children, ages 12 and 14.

“Some days when I’ve had to choose between whether or not I can buy food or whether I can buy clothes for when my kids have grown out of everything that they fit in,” Goodridge, who works part-time at a Halifax restaurant and lounge, said in an interview Monday arranged by the CCPA.

“Where you go to shop for food, how much food you can afford? If you have to go to food banks, . . . you’re getting a lot of dented cans of things that you (wouldn’t) necessarily (usually) eat . . . There’s very little fresh produce, seldom any protein, unless you really like beans.”

As for housing, Goodridge was able to get an apartment with the help of a local volunteer organization after living in shelters and a trouble-plagued non-profit housing association unit.

“There was no (hot) water in the bathroom to take a shower or a bath, I had to bring pots of water from the kitchen. . . . Broken thermostats, mold in the bathroom, rats in the basement, people living on the front porch.”

Goodridge has lived on social assistance in the past but she said her experiences with government agencies were “very disheartening.”

She singled out Nova Scotia’s policy of clawing back child support money from social assistance payments.

“You get less money . . . when you’re already living on the bare essentials,” she said.

Premier Stephen Mcneil told reporters in October that his government will look into changing that policy.

Goodridge said she has “a lot of sleepless nights” worrying about feeding, clothing and keeping a roof over her children’s heads.

“It’s a lot of wishing there were better supports out there, there’s a lot of relying on the kindness of strangers. Most of the help I’ve got over the years isn’t government help, it’s organizations, charities, it’s relying on friends.”

“Some days when I’ve had to choose between whether or not I can buy food or whether I can buy clothes for when my kids have grown out of everything that they fit in.” Elizabeth Goodridge, Halifax