The federal government is on track to miss its pledge to cut poverty in half by 2030, with the most recent figures showing a sharp rise in poverty across Canada.
Blacklock's Reporter says the Department of Employment confirmed that the poverty rate rose significantly in 2022, marking a setback for a goal once hailed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “historic.”
According to a briefing binder dated December 3, approximately one million more Canadians were living in poverty in 2022 compared to the previous year.
The official poverty rate rose to 9.9% in 2022, up from 7.4% in 2021. The increase reflects the expiry of pandemic-related income supports and the impact of soaring inflation on household budgets.
“Results from the 2022 Canadian Income Survey show the overall poverty rate in Canada... was 9.9%,” the document stated. “The increase in poverty rates reflects the end of pandemic-related income supports... as well as the significant increase in inflation.”
The Poverty Reduction Act, passed in 2019, set two major benchmarks: a 20% reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50% reduction by 2030, using 2015 as the baseline year when the poverty rate stood at 14.5%.
While the 2020 target was briefly met during the height of emergency COVID-19 supports, current trends show the government is falling further from its long-term commitment.
A report from the National Advisory Council on Poverty issued last October warned that, without urgent action, not only will Canada miss its 2030 goal, it could also fall back below the progress made by 2020.
The council cited rising food prices, rents, and transportation costs as key barriers to reducing poverty.
“We noted a growing sense of hopelessness and desperation,” the council wrote in a previous report, Blueprint For Transformation. “Persons with lived expertise of poverty and service providers alike told us things seem worse now than they were before and during the first years of the pandemic.”
Despite these warnings, Trudeau had described the initiative as a milestone moment.
“We set the goal of achieving the lowest poverty level in Canada’s history,” he told the House of Commons in 2019. “We have delivered in lifting hundreds of thousands of Canadians out of poverty... We are continuing to demonstrate leadership.”