Recession and recovery in BC, New Brunswick and PEI

In the past two and a half weeks, I've chronicled the impact of the recession across the country on this blog, touching on 7 of the 10 provinces. Reports on BC, New Brunswick and PEI have been published elsewhere. Here are the links if you're interested in checking them out:

Recession slammed BC's poor and it's not over - Vancouver Province

Prior to the economic downturn, B.C.'s economy was among the hottest in Canada, but the benefits were not equitably distributed. In 2007, the province had the highest poverty and child-poverty rate in the country.

The 2008-2009 recession hit B.C. very hard. Unemployment rose steeply, but employment insurance coverage was low, forcing many families to turn to social assistance. While incomes suffered, cost of living rose sharply. The effects of the recession were immediately visible in skyrocketing bankruptcies and rising food-bank use. Read more.

New Brunswick can't avoid recession's impact - New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal

In many ways, New Brunswick dodged a bullet with the recession. The province had one of the smallest increases in unemployment in the country, the highest Employment Insurance coverage, and the lowest increase in social assistance cases. But despite these general trends, New Brunswick families still found themselves confronted with greater economic insecurity thanks to the impact of the recession.

Cost of living rose sharply, forcing families to stretch their incomes farther, and bankruptcies and food bank use increased. Standard measures of poverty are published with a two-year lag time. But while we need to wait until 2011 to see the recession's effect on those measures, new research by Citizens for Public Justice, with funding from World Vision Canada, already reveals the impact of the recession on key economic indicators and poverty trends. Read more.

Recession creates poverty for PEI - Charlottetown Guardian

In 2007, Prince Edward Island had the lowest poverty and child poverty rates in the country. Unfortunately, the recession has hit the Island's most vulnerable citizens very hard, increasing poverty and economic insecurity.

While unemployment increased only slightly, many other economic indicators show the devastating impact of the recession, including a significant increase in social assistance cases, a sharp rise in the cost of living, and a big jump in the number of bankruptcies. Read more.