Campaign 2000 reports during the pandemic, rates of child poverty dropped by 40%, which it attributes to federal benefits that lifted many families above the poverty line. With the pandemic waning and inflation rising, the group's concerned the nation's poorest and most vulnerable could slip back into poverty. It recommends a supplement to the Canada Child Benefit that would target the poorest families. Overall, one-in-eight children lived in poverty in 2020, which works out to nearly one million. Data from N.B. showed one in five children below the age of 6 were living in poverty in 2020, with the rate being one in three for racialized New Brunswickers. Campbellton, Bathurst and Saint John saw the highest rates of child poverty. With benefits ending and record-high inflation, it’s likely the poverty has returned to pre-pandemic levels or worse. The child poverty rate in N.B. was at 21.7% in 2019 and 16.6% in 2020.
Related:
N.-B.: le nombre d’enfants pauvres a baissé grâce à Ottawa - L'Acadie Nouvelle (abonnement)