Question Period Note: POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY

Update on the Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy

• In a country as prosperous as Canada, all Canadians should have a real and fair chance to succeed. That is why, in 2018, the Government of Canada released Opportunity for All: Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy.

• Opportunity for All lays out a bold vision of a Canada without poverty. The strategy established an official measure of poverty: Canada’s Official Poverty Line and includes a target to reduce poverty by 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030 relative to 2015 levels. It also establishes the National Advisory Council on Poverty whose first annual report on progress, 'Building Understanding: The First Report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty,' was tabled in the House of Commons in February 2021.

• Results from the 2019 Canadian Income Survey, released in March 2021, show that the government is making meaningful progress towards meeting the goals laid out in the Strategy. According to the Canadian Income Survey, the poverty rate decreased by 30% from 2015 to 2019. This means that Canada has met its interim target to reduce poverty by 20 percent by 2020. Between 2015 and 2019, over 1.3 million Canadians were lifted out of poverty. The Canada Child Benefit, the increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and the Canada Workers Benefit have contributed to this sustained progress.

• The Government of Canada undertook extensive engagement with Canadians to inform the development of the Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy. The nation wide engagement process, launched in February 2017, gave Canadians an opportunity to have their say on reducing poverty through a Poverty Reduction Strategy engagement website, including discussion forums and online town halls. The online engagement was complemented by roundtables with stakeholders; Indigenous organizations; businesses; community organizations; academic experts; and Canadians who have experienced poverty.

• Three major themes emerged from the engagement and form the pillars of the Poverty Reduction Strategy: 1) Dignity: Lifting Canadians out of poverty by ensuring basic needs – such as safe and affordable housing, healthy food, and healthcare – are met; 2) Opportunity and Inclusion: Helping Canadians join the middle class by promoting full participation in society and equality of opportunity; and 3) Resilience and Security: Supporting the middle class by protecting Canadians from falling into poverty and by supporting income security and resilience.

• "Opportunity for All" acknowledges that many Canadians struggle to get ahead because of barriers beyond their control, such as discrimination or unacceptable prejudices. For example, Black Canadians and people from other racialized communities can face discrimination that prevents them from getting a good job despite being qualified, or from advancing in their career. Discrimination based on skin colour can also lead to social exclusion, whether in the workplace or in the community.

• Based on understanding the linkages between poverty and discriminatory barriers, Opportunity for All was developed using a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens, in order to take into consideration the variation in experiences and barriers that different groups face related to poverty.

• Understanding the unique risk factors, the impact of intersecting experiences and the needs of diverse groups will help the Government to tailor interventions under the Strategy to more effectively address poverty in Canada.

• "Opportunity for All" includes long-term commitments to guide current and future government’s actions and investments:

• Canada’s Official Poverty Line - For the first time in Canada’s history, the Government set an official measure of income poverty based on Statistics Canada’s Market Basket Measure (MBM). The MBM is calculated based on the costs of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet their basic needs and achieve a basic, modest standard of living. The Poverty Reduction Act requires the MBM to be reviewed regularly to ensure that basket costs are up-to-date and that basket contents reflect the items required to meet basic needs and achieve a modest standard of living. Statistics Canada is currently working collaboratively with territorial governments to develop a basket of goods and services unique to each territory. This will ensure that Canada’s Official Poverty Line is available in all regions of Canada. It is expected that provisional poverty rates according to the Canada’s Official Poverty Line for the Northwest Territories and Yukon (MBM North 2018 and 2019) will be published by Statistics Canada in the fall of 2021.

• A joint Statistics Canada – ESDC review of the MBM was launched in the fall of 2018. Statistics Canada was responsible for launching the review, updating the statistical methodology, and leading public consultations. ESDC was responsible for determining the scope of the review and setting the policy direction. Statistics Canada and ESDC have now completed the review, and new poverty statistics using the 2018-base were released in September 2020. Results from the recently released 2019 Canadian Income Survey show that between 2015 and 2019, over 1.3 million of Canadians were lifted out of poverty.

• Poverty Reduction Targets - Canada’s Official Poverty Line is being used to measure progress toward two targets for poverty reduction, using a baseline year of 2015: reduce the rate of poverty by 20% by 2020 (target met in 2017); and reduce the rate of poverty by 50% by 2030. The target to reduced poverty by 50% by 2030 relative to 2015 is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

• Data and Measurement Plan - In addition to the introduction of Canada’s Official Poverty Line, the Government is making improvements to the measurement of poverty that will help address data gaps and track progress. Budget 2018 announced an investment of $12.1 million over five years, and $1.5 million per year thereafter, to address key gaps in poverty measurement in Canada.

• A Dashboard of poverty indicators has been created to allow Canadians to track progress against the targets and other dimensions of poverty aligned with the three pillars.

• National Advisory Council on Poverty - To ensure accountability to Canadians, the Government has established a National Advisory Council on Poverty with a mandate to both advise the Government on poverty reduction and to produce a report on the progress in poverty reduction that will be tabled annually in Parliament. The Advisory Council hosted a series of engagement dialogue sessions with stakeholders (including persons with lived experience) in early 2020 to inform their first annual report, 'Building Understanding: The First Report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty', which was tabled in the House of Commons in February 2021.

• Poverty Reduction Legislation - To cement the commitment to reducing poverty, the Poverty Reduction Act, which received Royal Assent in June 2019, entrenched into law Canada’s Official Poverty Line, the poverty reduction targets, and the National Advisory Council on Poverty.

• As part of "Opportunity for All," the Government has also committed to working with National Indigenous Organizations to identify and co-develop indicators of poverty and well-being that reflect the multiple dimensions of poverty and well-being experienced by First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

• A number of measures have been taken to help Canada meet its poverty reduction targets. The Canada Child Benefit provides substantial income support to families raising children. From July 2019 to June 2020, the Canada Child Benefit helped approximately 3.9 million families and 6.9 million children, putting over $26 billion, tax-free, in the hands of Canadian families. For Canadian seniors, the Old Age Security (OAS) program plays a significant role in providing income security. OAS recipients who receive little to no income, other than this pension, are eligible for additional assistance through the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

• As well, through Budget 2021, the Government of Canada provided investments for several measures that will help to reduce poverty. These measures include increasing regular OAS payments for pensioners aged 75 and older by 10 percent as of July 2022, making Employment Insurance more accessible and simple for Canadians and expanding the Canada Workers Benefit to support about 1 million additional Canadians in low-wage jobs. The Government is also working with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners to build a Canada-wide, community-based child care system. Moreover, as the Budget affirms, the Government is investing in housing, taking action to create almost 500,000 new job and training opportunities for workers, establishing a $15 federal minimum wage that is expected to benefit 26,000 workers in the federally regulated private sector, and supporting initiatives to improve food security.

• There was a decrease in the overall poverty rate in 2019. According to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, there were approximately 3.74 million people in poverty in Canada in 2019 (10.1 percent), meaning that approximately 1,344,000 fewer Canadians were living in poverty relative to 2015.

• There was a decrease in the poverty rate for children under 18 in 2019. According to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, there were approximately 680,000 children in poverty in Canada in 2019 (9.7 percent), meaning that approximately 435,000 fewer children were living in families in poverty in 2019 relative to 2015.

• There was a decrease in the poverty rate for seniors in 2019. A total of 349,000 seniors lived below Canada’s Official Poverty Line in 2019 (5.4 percent), meaning that approximately 45,000 fewer seniors were in poverty in 2019 relative to 2015. This decline reverses the trend of increased seniors’ poverty that had been observed between 2014 and 2015.

• Poverty rates for certain key vulnerable groups in 2019 were:
o Indigenous people living off reserve (16 and older): 18% in 2019 compared with 26% in 2015.
o recent immigrants (arrived in Canada in the past 10 years): 17.4% in 2019 compared with 27.9% in 2015.
o children in a female-led lone-parent family: 29.8% in 2019 compared with 39.4% in 2015.
o people living alone: 32.7% in 2019 compared with 38.8% in 2015.

• While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty is not yet known, we know that vulnerable populations have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic.