Question Period Note: POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY AND YOUTH

Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and Youth Facing Economic Insecurity

The Government of Canada takes poverty reduction very seriously. Canada's Poverty Reduction Strategy is guided by the clear vision that whoever they are, and wherever they originally came from, all Canadians should be able to live in dignity. 

And the Strategy is delivering results. Results from the 2023 Canadian Income Survey released in May 2025 show that between 2015 and 2023, poverty in Canada fell by nearly 28%.

Building on this progress, the Government remains committed to Canada’s target of reducing poverty by 50% from 2015 levels by 2030. We will continue implementing measures that support Canadians facing higher costs of living and build a strong economy that benefits everyone.

If pressed on how Budget 2025 is supporting poverty reduction:

Budget 2025 proposes several measures that will benefit low-income Canadians and support poverty reduction. For example, this includes measures like:

implementing the Automatic Federal Benefits for low-income Canadians who don't file their taxes either because they don't have the resources or because they think that their income is too low for it to matter. This measure will begin with the 2026 tax year and is expected to benefit 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year.

launching Build Canada Homes to increase the supply of deeply affordable housing for low-income households

making the National School Food Program permanent, helping participating families with two children saving an average of $800 per year on groceries.

These and other Budget 2025 measures build on the tax cut announced earlier this year to help hard-working Canadians keep more of their paycheques. It provides tax relief for nearly 22 million Canadians, saving two-income families up to $840 a year in 2026.

If pressed on how Budget 2025 supports youth

Budget 2025 proposes several measures that support youth specifically. These measures include:

Canada Summer Jobs to support about 175,000 youth with an invest of $594.7 million over two years;

Youth Employment and Skills Strategy with an investment of $307.9 million over two years

Student Work Placement Program with $635.2 million over three years

The creation of a Youth Climate Corps with an investment of $40 million over two years

These measures build on several other Budget 2025 measures that will benefit all Canadians, including youth.

Key Statistics on Youth

As of July 2025, Canada had an estimated 11.2 million youth between the ages of 15-34 in Canada, which represents 26.9% of the total population.

The median total income for youth aged 18-30 was $29,200 in 2023, significantly lower than the national median total income of $45,400. Among youth in this age group who live in poverty, the median total income falls to $14,100.

Canadian youth between 18-30 years old have a poverty rate of 15.3% in 2023 compared to an overall poverty rate of 10.9% in Canada for 2023. This age cohort represents about a quarter (25.3%) of the total population living in poverty.

In September 2025, youth unemployment (15–24) was 14.7% compared to the overall unemployment rate of 7.1%.

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians aged 15 to 29 are renters compared to one third of the general population and youth spend a higher share of their income on shelter-related costs.

Fifty-nine percent of young adults in Canada, aged 20 to 35, reported being very concerned about their ability to afford housing.

In 2022, Canadians aged 15 to 24 not living with a parent had a shelter cost to income ratio of 23%, compared to 16% across all age groups, meaning that youth spent almost a quarter of their gross income on shelter costs nationally.

For those under 35 years of age, the debt-to-income ratio reached 178.1% compared to 181.8% for all households.

The youngest households were the only age group to reduce their total average debt (-1.6%), while their average disposable income grew at the slowest pace of any age group (+1.3% vs. 3.9% for all households), due mainly to a decline in wages.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy

Canada’s Official Poverty Line, based on the Market Basket Measure (MBM), sets income thresholds for a modest standard of living and is regularly updated to remain relevant.

In November 2025, Statistics Canada introduced a new MBM base (the 2023-base MBM) to better reflect current realities. This replaces the 2018-base MBM previously used to track progress since 2015. Because of this change, the 2015 poverty rate can no longer be calculated using the 2023-base MBM. Going forward, progress will be tracked using an index that compares rates to 2015 levels.

While the new measure shows an increase in the poverty rate from 10.3% in 2022 to 10.9% in 2023, poverty has still fallen by nearly 28% since 2015.

To help keep up with rising costs, key benefits that millions rely on are indexed to inflation.

This includes the Canada Child Benefit, Canada Workers Benefit, GST Credit, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

The Government of Canada released Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy – in 2018. The Strategy sets a bold vision for Canada as a world leader in ending poverty. The Strategy aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty (SDG 1).

To implement this vision, the Government of Canada enshrined into law:

Canada’s Official Poverty Line;

Ambitious poverty reduction targets of 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030, relative to 2015 levels; and

The National Advisory Council on Poverty to track progress and advise on how to further reduce poverty.

Through the Strategy, Canada has strengthened its social safety net with measures like the Canada Child Benefit, improvements to the Old Age Security pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and introduction of the Canada Workers Benefit and recently enhancing it.

These initiatives, along with the ongoing development of a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, the Canadian Dental Care Plan, the National School Food Program and the recent introduction of the Canada Disability Benefit help make life more affordable for Canadians.