Poverty in Canada
Poverty in Canada refers to the state or condition in which a person or household lacks essential resources—financial or otherwise—to maintain a modest standard of living in their community.
The MBM considers the cost of a basket of basic goods and services needed by a family of two adults and two children to maintain a modest standard of living.
[5] By 2008, Canada's poverty rate was among the highest of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member nations—the wealthiest countries in the world.
[8] According to a 2019 study by researchers at the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), nearly 50% of Indigenous children in Canada—both on and off reserve—were living in poverty.
[4] The 2020 Canadian Income Survey (CIS) released in March 2022 by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said that there was a substantial decrease in the poverty rate from 14.5% in 2015 to 6.4% in 2020.
[15][16] The shift away from the welfare state took place in the late 1970s and 1980s, as national governments led by Margaret Thatcher in Britain in 1979, Ronald Reagan in the United States in 1980, Helmut Kohl in Germany in 1983, and Brian Mulroney in Canada 1984 adopted economic policies[17] that favoured the free-market,[18]: 7 [19] globalization, free trade, and reductions in government spending with an accompanying increase in privatization.
[24] These free market concepts and public policy recommendations were promoted by think tanks, libertarian organizations, and political parties,[25] and are the subject of substantial scholarly debate.
[30] A 2014 article in the journal Forum for Social Economics, said that neoliberal policies enacted since the 1980s resulted in a global trend of inequality in income distribution.
[2]: 5 [32] Based on their research, the report expanded the definition of poverty to include not just monetary concerns but also "access to suitable housing, healthy and nutritious food, and health care.
"[2]: 32 Poverty in Canada refers to the state or condition in which a person or community lacks essential resources, financial or otherwise, to maintain a modest standard of living.
The MBM considers the cost of a basket of basic goods and services needed by a family of two adults and two children to maintain a modest standard of living.
According to a 2011 Canadian Review of Social Policy article, Statistics Canada calculates the LICO threshold separately based on the size of settlements.
"[52]: 104 The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) The World Factbook reported that an estimated 9.4% of the Canadian population lived below the poverty line in 2008 based on the LICO measurement.
[61][68] In October 1935, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King introduced a new era in which he sought to banish "poverty and adversity, want and misery" from Canada.
[61] These actions formed the foundations of Canada's "social security system or welfare state" which succeeded in "reducing the impact of poverty for many families.
"[83] Concerns about the recession, were raised by world leaders at the Venice Summit, at meetings of Finance Ministers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Leaders of developed countries raised their concerns at the Venice Summit, at meetings of Finance Ministers of the IMF and the OECD.
This percentage of childhood impoverishment seems to imply that Canada's allocation of funding designed to assist Indigenous children is failing to match the severity of the problem.
[105] With the publication of their third installment in Upstream Institute's series, completed on June 24, 2019, by researchers at the Assembly of First Nations and the CCPA, the authors met with provincial premiers to report that nearly 50% of Indigenous children live in poverty.
These at risk groups include members of First Nations who live on reserves, unattached individuals, those with disabilities, children, recent immigrants, and persons in sole-caregiver families.
[108] In his 2011 statement published on the United Nations site, James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, said that "aboriginal communities face higher rates of poverty, and poorer health, education and employment outcomes than non-aboriginals in Canada.
He cited in particular how many residents in the Attawapiskat First Nation community of 2,000 in the Kenora "live in unheated shacks or trailers that lack running water" and electricity in "Third World conditions.
Many find this fact unsettling as Canada has built their economic structure around the work performed by immigrants and as a result, is a leading destination for individuals wanting to leave their country.
There are many factors that contribute to this, but there is a strong emphasis on the fact that new immigrants often face an economic market that can only provide them with poorly paid occupations.
[52]: 107 According to a 2000 article in the Journal of International Migration and Integration, using data from the 1996 census, immigrants in Canada are more likely to live in high-poverty neighbourhoods, than non-immigrants.
[122] Research undertaken in the mid-1990s revealed that there was a "strong association between race and minority status, and living in neighbourhoods of concentrated poverty in Canada.
[96] The rural federal riding of Churchill—Keewatinook Aski in Manitoba, which had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada in 2015 (64.2%)[96] encompasses the northern four fifths of the province and includes a vast wilderness area, First Nations reserves, and small communities.
[128] Statistics Canada and ESDC are working in collaboration with Nunavut to develop a MBM-N which will take into consideration the "unique living conditions" experienced there.
[42] According to a 2011 Canadian Review of Social Policy article, British Columbia had the most prevalent rates of impoverishment and childhood poverty within Canada.
Several Canadian provinces are introducing poverty reduction strategies, following the examples set by the European Union, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Because of these moves, each province is exploring the development of a measurement tool to track any progress made on reducing poverty, such as the use of a Deprivation Index.
