British Columbia, Canada-Wide

Through initiatives like Journey Home, there’s been a huge focus on homelessness in the Okanagan over the past few months but Christine Mettler says there is much more to poverty than not having a home.

“Journey Home is just focused on homelessness,” she told iNFOnews.ca. “The B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition has a much broader view on poverty. We look at housing. We look at health care. We look at income supports. We look at education. We look at these other issues in their entirety.”

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Canada-Wide, Central

One in seven households in the Nipissing and Parry Sound districts are food insecure, according to the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit (Health Unit). Food insecurity means a household does not have enough money to buy healthy food, highlighting low income as the underlying issue. Food insecurity ranges from worrying about running out of food, to relying on less healthy, lower cost foods, to skipping meals, due to financial constraints

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Canada-Wide, Maritimes

Child poverty rates are going down across the country. According to Statistics Canada the number of children living in poverty in Canada dropped from 13.3 per cent in 2015 to to nine per cent in 2017.

Every province followed the national trend, except for Nova Scotia where the number of children in poverty went from 15.7 in 2015 to 17.1 in 2017.

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Canada-Wide, Maritimes

Nova Scotia is the only province where child poverty has increased since 2015, according to new Statistics Canada data.

Lynn Hartwell, deputy minister of Community Services with the Nova Scotia provincial government told The Chronicle Herald the statistics require attention.

“We’ve been watching a decades old trend of child poverty being on the decrease. And so to see such a sharp reversal of that in a very short period of time is concerning,” she said

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Canada-Wide, Central

Lee Soh, 57, said she was not surprised to hear that the city’s 2019 budget leaves council at risk of falling well behind on election promises to reduce poverty across Toronto this term, as a new report concludes.

“I’m paying attention to the budget,” she said in an interview. She’s been involved in several advisory bodies advocating for those living with low income. “Every year the city budget is always like this.”

For her and those like her for whom even a discounted transit fare — increasing in this budget by 5 cents — is a luxury they frequently can’t afford, this budget doesn’t do enough, she said.

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Canada-Wide, Central

As homeless residents of Burlington, Robert and Janette Baker are used to feeling invisible.

“People think it’s just a big-city problem,” said Robert, 37, removing several sweaters in a Plains Road McDonald’s. It was a blustery winter day and the Bakers were dressed in layers to stave off the cold.

“Halton has to realize (homelessness) is here. It is at your front door,” added Janette, 30, wearing tidy makeup and a fashionable coat from the Compassion Society, a Plains Road East agency that provides free food, clothes and household items.

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