Latest child poverty numbers continue to climb: N.B. report

New Brunswick's child poverty rate continues to steadily rise with inflation and the cost of living.

The Human Development Council's latest report card says the provincial child poverty rate was at 22 per cent, according to 2022 tax returns.

Of the three largest cities in the province, the report says Saint John has the highest rate, at 31.2 per cent. This means about one in three children in Saint John are living in poverty.

Dr. Sarah Gander is a pediatrician and clinical lead for New Brunswick Social Pediatrics, a group that works to improve the health of children and families. 

She said childhood poverty has lasting impacts on the community, in education, the economy and health care.

"If you're trying to survive, if you're not able to have food on the table, then how could we ever expect a child to be able to be school ready or present in the school environment to be able to reach their full potential?" Gander said.

"If you can't lift one generation out of poverty, it takes many generations to be able to recover from that because the children need to be able to reach their full potential to be able to break that cycle."

According to the report, child poverty rates in the province have been consistently high, about five per cent higher than the national average, over the past decade. There was a significant dip in 2020, when government assistance pushed some families over the poverty line. The report said that progress has been undone and numbers are now back to 2016 levels.

New Brunswick had the country's sixth-highest child poverty rate in 2022 — fourth if the territories are not counted, it said.

Children from Indigenous communities in the province experience high poverty rates, with the 2021 Census reporting that 23.9 per cent of Indigenous children lived in poverty in New Brunswick, compared to 15.3 per cent of non-Indigenous children.

On Wednesday, child, youth and seniors' advocate Kelly Lamrock announced that his office will start a five-month consultation with community groups and non-profits to tackle child poverty. He said government social assistance is broken but there is a path to fixing it.

"There [are] so many people doing great work in all of the communities in the non-profit sector. A lot of the solutions are there," he said. "We do have a government with a new mandate, and we're hoping that our office can help stimulate change."

Gander said she will be participating in this consultation. She said a focus on community groups is essential, because they have a direct line to the people affected. She said front-line organizations, such as food banks, lunch programs and youth services, are the last safety net.

"Government needs to recognize that that social safety net isn't just a nicety," she said. "We have to do that because otherwise ... these families will not survive.

Similar trend nationally

The picture is not that different nationally, according to a 2024 report card on family poverty.

Terence Hamilton, deputy director of policy with UNICEF Canada, said child poverty has increased in every province and territory. The highest increase among the provinces was in Ontario, at 3.5 per cent.

Hamilton said historically marginalized groups often have the highest rates of poverty, especially in Nunavut and Indigenous people living in First Nations.

He said there's also growing concern about single-parent families in this country who have always experienced higher levels of poverty.

"There's more lone-parent families than there have ever been before. And many of those families are headed by women, and they're experiencing deeper and deeper poverty," he said.

Hamilton said the good news is that policies like the Canada Child Benefit had helped to lift many families out of poverty, starting in 2020. However, he said the efficacy of that policy has diminished because it could not keep up with inflation. 

The report makes many national recommendations, Hamilton said, including adding a low-income supplement to specifically target households "to ensure that those the children growing up in those households are not experiencing undue deprivation."

The Human Development Council report makes similar recommendations, including adding a supplement for people in deep poverty, which would provide an additional $8,500 per year to a family with an earned income of less than $19,000, with scaled reductions for additional children, irrespective of age.