‘We need a wake-up call’: P.E.I.’s report card shows increased child poverty

Prince Edward Island's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa on July 6, 2020.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) released their child and family poverty report card Wednesday with the MacKillop Centre for Social Justice.

The 2025 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty on Prince Edward Island: Complacency is Disgraceful, showed child poverty was “essentially unchanged” from 2022 and the number of children living in poverty increased.

“We need a wake-up call about poverty and the complacency that continues to victimize children and their families, especially the youngest and keeps its eradication at a snail’s pace,” said Mary Boyd, co-author of the report and director of the MacKillop Centre. “The report card shows that eradication is possible and can happen soon if the government will only fulfill its obligation; otherwise, it will continue for centuries.”

Findings in the 2023 data showed:

• 16.7 per cent of children (5,060) on P.E.I. lived in poverty (this is a change of less than one per cent from 2022 but the number of children living in poverty increased by 60)
• children under six have higher rates of poverty at 17.6 per cent
• child poverty rates differed by geographic region: child poverty in rural communities ranged from 33.3 per cent in Belle River to 6.7 per cent in Emyvale
• children living in one-parent families had the highest rate of poverty at 38.3 per cent
• 35.1 per cent of children on P.E.I. would have lived in poverty without critical government transfers
• 31.2 per cent of P.E.I. children lived in food insecure households.
• P.E.I. is not on track to meet its legislated Poverty Elimination Strategy Act targets (the rates for food insecurity and child poverty have risen from their 2018 baseline)

“When P.E.I.’s child benefit rolled out in 2025, the maximum benefit amount of $30 a month was not even enough to buy a single can of infant formula – which was $44.56 at the beginning of the year, and $50.10 by November,” said report co-author and CCPA-NS outreach officer Ruby Harrington. “Although implementing the benefit is a good start, it is simply not enough to actually make a meaningful difference for parents across the Island.”

Behind the statistics, parents are doing everything they can to support their children amid real hardship, said co-author and CCPA-NS director, Christine Saulnier.

“With the upcoming budget, the P.E.I. government has the fiscal capacity to accelerate progress,” Saulnier said. “The long-term economic and social returns of reducing child poverty are well established. Failing to act decisively risks limiting the potential of another generation of children. P.E.I.’s future depends on families with children being able to thrive.”

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