Poverty in Canada

The low-income cutoff (LICO) is still the most used "poverty" indicator.

As a measurement, it is based on the concept that people in poverty live in compromised circumstances (defined as spending a disproportionate amount of their total gross income on food, clothing, and shelter).

Household expenditure surveys conducted by Statistics Canada show that the average family spends 35 per cent of its gross income on food, clothing, and shelter.

A family is considered to be in difficult circumstances if it spends 55 per cent of its income on those three items.

Source: Mapleleafweb.com

 

Which Provinces & Territories
claw back & which do not

Provinces & territories with clawbacks (funds diverted into other programs):

• Prince Edward Island
• Ontario
• Saskatchewan
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Yukon
• Northwest Territories
• Nunavut

Provinces & territories with no clawbacks:

• Newfoundland and Labrador
• New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia
• Manitoba

Quebec is the only province that doesn't participate in the National Child Benefit Supplement.

Source: National Council on Welfare

 

 

The Present & Future of Child Poverty

• A 2002 NCB report showed that child poverty was declining in Canada, from a high of 15.8 per cent in 1996 to 11.4 per cent in 2000. Now, for the first time in five years, child poverty is on the rise again.
  
  
• Some 55,000 children who had been living in poverty before the NCB supplement was introduced were no longer in a low-income situation by 2000.
  
  
• By the year 2007-08, the federal government will spend $10 billion to support low-income families with children through the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the NCB Supplement.
  
  
• Benefit levels for a family of four (with two children) should rise from the current maximum of $4,680 to a projected $6,260 by 2007-08.

Sources: The 2002 National Child Benefit Progress Report & Campaign 2000