The Department of Social Development is working on redefining the official poverty line in Canada, while insisting cabinet’s promise to reduce poverty 50% by 2030 is foreseeable.“The government remains committed to achieving the 2030 poverty reduction target of reducing poverty by 50% relative to 2015,” it said, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.The new definition of poverty in Canada, which has increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic, will become official in the fall.“This marks another milestone in refining Canada’s official poverty measure so it continues to reflect the goods and services required for a modest, basic standard of living while relying on the latest available data and most up-to-date standards,” said a May 1 briefing note on the “market basket measure.”.Wildfires estimated to cost billions.Revisions include the introduction of online retailers’ prices for clothing and footwear, a “direct estimate” of median rent for a three-bedroom property, the cost of 1,200 litres of gasoline annually as well as monthly public transit passes, round-trip taxi or rideshare fares and the costs of cellphone plans.The poverty line accounts for local costs by region, said the review.“The current measure determines thresholds for different regions of Canada which can be adjusted to families of different sizes,” it said.“If a family’s disposable income is below the threshold for the region in which they live in a given year, they are considered to be living in poverty.”Parliament in 2019 passed the Poverty Reduction Act that set an aspirational goal of halving poverty rates within a decade.Section 6 of the Act states: “Targets for poverty reduction in Canada to which the Government of Canada aspires are the following: a) 20% below the level of poverty in 2015 by 2020 and b) 50% below the level of poverty in 2015 by 2030.”.Feds admit cost of living flattened poverty progress.The updated poverty rate in Canada is currently 9.9% compared to 7.4% in 2021.“Approximately a million more Canadians were living in poverty,” said a December 3 department brief.The figures drawn from Canadian Income Surveys were the most recent available and did not account for the worst of post-pandemic inflation.The National Advisory Council on Poverty in a 2023 forecast said the target would be difficult to meet.“If this trend continues the government will not only fail to meet its 2030 target of a 50% decrease in poverty but may also fall back below its 2020 target of a 2% decrease,” said the report, entitled A Time for Urgent Action. The Council blamed higher food prices, rents and transportation costs.
