Question Period Note: RELEASE OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL ON POVERTY’S 2024 REPORT

A Time for Urgent Action: the 2024 report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty was tabled in Parliament

• The Government of Canada thanks the National Advisory Council on Poverty for their fifth report.

• The Government recognizes that many Canadians are concerned about higher costs of living and their impact on poverty and food insecurity. That is why the Government introduced several measures in Budget 2024.

• These include measures to help lower everyday costs, such as building more affordable homes and introducing new programs to help with the cost of going to the dentist and pharmacy.

• But we know that more will need to be done and the Government will continue to support and invest in Canadians.

The National Advisory Council on Poverty

• On August 21, 2018, the Government of Canada released the report: Opportunity for All: Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy. A bold vision to build a Canada where every Canadian has a real and fair chance at success, a Canada without poverty.

• The Poverty Reduction Strategy included concrete poverty reduction targets – a 20% reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50% reduction in poverty by 2030; Canada’s Official Poverty Line to measure poverty and track progress towards the targets; and a National Advisory Council on Poverty.

• The National Advisory Council on Poverty (Council) was established in September 2019. The mandate of the Council is to:

o provide independent advice to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development on poverty reduction;
o to annually submit a report on the progress achieved toward reducing the level of poverty by 20% by 2020 and by 50% by 2030, relative to the 2015 level;
o to continue a dialogue with Canadians on poverty; and
o to undertake any activity specified by the Minister.

• The members of the Council were chosen through an open, transparent, merit-based Governor in Council selection process. Members were selected to represent Canada’s diversity, taking into account linguistic and regional diversity, gender, and groups more vulnerable to poverty.

• The Council currently consists of ten members, including persons with lived experience of poverty. They are also community leaders, academics, and practitioners who work in the field of poverty reduction. Two of the Council members are full-time, the Chairperson and the member with particular responsibilities for children’s issues; the other members are part-time.

Council’s Report and Recommendations

• To inform its fifth report, the Council combined in-person meetings in four regions across Canada with five virtual sessions in total. The Council visited and met with individuals and groups in Calgary (Alberta), Halifax and Truro (Nova Scotia), St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador), and Whitehorse (Yukon). The virtual sessions were thematic and focused on:

o the complexity and different layers of poverty;
o housing, food insecurity and cost of living;
o efforts to empower those made most marginal; and
o the rising rate of poverty in Canada.

• The 2024 annual report includes a comprehensive list of consulted organizations this year.

• This year’s activities complemented those undertaken by the Council since its inception, which include 47 virtual engagement sessions in the past 4 years and in-person visits.

• In this report, the Council has made six recommendations under three themes:

o Meeting vital needs to thrive: this includes measures to address the higher costs of living, decrease core housing needs, and increase food security.
o Improving access to benefits and service delivery: this includes the need for low-barrier and equitable measures to facilitate access to benefits and services and additional supports to systems navigation initiatives and the non-profit sector.
o Building strong communities and enabling equity: this includes a plan to address poverty inequality to decrease the poverty rate in marginalized groups.

Key Poverty Statistics

• Results from the 2022 Canadian Income Survey show that the overall poverty rate in Canada, as measured by Canada’s Official Poverty Line, was 9.9% in 2022, up from 7.4% in 2021.

• The increase in the overall poverty rate between 2021 and 2022 is largely due to the discontinuation of pandemic government transfers and the high inflation rates experienced throughout 2022, which contributed to increase costs of living. Approximately 1 million more Canadians were living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2021.

• The 2022 poverty rate represents a 32% decrease in the overall poverty rate compared to 2015 (14.5%), the baseline year for Canada’s legislated poverty reduction targets. There were close to 1.3 million fewer people living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2015.

• The poverty rate for children was 9.9% in 2022, up from 6.4% in 2021.
o Approximately 273,000 more children were living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2021.
o The 2022 poverty rate for children represents a 39% decrease in poverty compared to 2015 (16.3%). There were approximately 380,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2022 than in 2015. The number of children living in poverty in 2015 was estimated at 1.12 million.

• The poverty rate for seniors was 6.0% in 2022, compared to 5.6% in 2021.
o There were approximately 47,000 more seniors living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2021.
o The 2022 poverty rate for seniors represents a 15% decrease in poverty compared to 2015 (7.1%). There were approximately 36,000 more seniors living in poverty in 2022 than in 2015. The number of seniors living in poverty in 2015 was estimated at 394,000.

• The poverty rate among Indigenous people living off-reserve and aged 15 and older was 17.5% in 2022, compared with 13.9% in 2021 (estimate for those aged 16 and over).
o The poverty rate among First Nations people living off-reserve was 22.1% in 2022, up from 17.2% in 2021.
o Among Métis, the poverty rate was 11.9%, up from 10.5% in 2021.
o Separate estimates for the Inuit population could not be published because of small sample sizes.

• 2022 poverty rates for key vulnerable groups were as follows:
o Recent immigrants aged 15 and older: 14.0% in 2022 compared with 10.3% in 2021 (estimate for those aged 16 and over).
o Persons with a disability aged 15 and over: 12.3% in 2022 compared with 10.6% in 2021 (estimate for those aged 16 and over).
o Persons in lone-parent families: 22.6% in 2022 compared with 16.1% in 2021.
o Persons not in an economic family: 26.0% in 2022 compared with 21.9% in 2021.
o Persons designated as visible minorities: 13.0% in 2022, compared with 9.5% in 2021.

• The 2022 poverty rate for different groups designated as visible minorities were as follows:
o Persons identifying as South Asian: 11.5%
o Persons identifying as Chinese: 15.6%
o Persons identifying as Black: 13.9%
o Persons identifying as Filipino: 6.2%
o Persons identifying as Arab: 18.7%
o Persons identifying as Latin American: 11.3%
o Persons identifying as Southeast Asian: 12.3%
o Other visible minority: 16.2%
o Not a visible minority: 8.7%

If Pressed on Rising Poverty Rate

• Canada has made significant progress towards meeting its 2030 poverty reduction target. While poverty has gone up in recent years, poverty has been reduced by 32% since 2015, meaning that 1.3 million fewer people living in poverty in Canada today relative to 2015.

• This result has not happened by haphazard. It is the result of significant investments the Government has made since 2015 to support Canadians. These include the introduction of Canada Child Benefit, improvements to the Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement only to name a few.