The Nova Scotia Food Bank and community groups are calling for an immediate increase in income support for the growing number of residents in a “crisis” situation who cannot afford housing or food.
Current income support rates are “grossly” below the poverty line, said Nick Genry, executive director of feed nova scotia, told a legislative committee on Tuesday. Those who rely on the program, he said, described the situation as “floating in water without any lifeblood”.
“It is a profound cruelty to leave thousands of Nova Scotians on income support to live a life of crippling poverty…. Leaving so many Nova Scotians constantly waiting for that lifeline is a political choice.
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The province’s financial assistance program doesn’t prevent food insecurity, Jenry said, adding that up to 45 percent of people who use the 140 food banks in Feed Nova Scotia’s network rely on government assistance as their primary source of income.
She said the huge demand for food during the holidays was highlighted when her network helped feed 20,000 residents over Christmas — the largest number of people in the history of the holiday meal program.
Christina Carter, executive director of community services nonprofit Chebucto Connections, told the committee the organization’s job is getting harder as the cost of living rises and pushes more residents into homelessness in Halifax’s Spreefield area.
She said that in a span of only 10 days, her group worked with a newly homeless man who had been evicted for allowing people to “couch surf” and a single parent with cancer. Was evicted for nonpayment of rent while waiting to become eligible. Applying for social assistance.
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Carter said that during those same 10 days, a senior in poverty told his group that they were considering medical aid in dying “because they don’t see any other way out of the struggle.”
He said income support should be immediately scaled up to catch up with the cost of living, and indexed to the rate of inflation to ensure food and housing to the vulnerable. “The government needs to act on this crisis just as quickly as they did with COVID-19,” Carter said in an interview after Tuesday’s committee hearing.
“We have seen firsthand that changes can be made, that they can cut red tape and do all kinds of things to keep people safe. So why is this any different?”
Data from the 2021 Census shows that Nova Scotia is tied with British Columbia for having the highest poverty rate in Canada: 9.8 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Nova Scotia has the highest rate of child poverty in all of Canada, at 11.4 per cent – well above the national rate of 8.5 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on January 10, 2023.
© 2023 The Canadian Press