Poverty Measures
Canadian Resources

Mesures de pauvreté :
ressources canadiennes

Updated October 20, 2011
Page révisée le 20 octobre 2011

[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

On this page you'll find links to Canadian resources on the subject of poverty measures.

Related pages on this site:
* Poverty Measures - International resources page - links to American and other international poverty measures
* Social Statistics page - links to social program statistics for Canada and other countries
* Asset-Based Social Policies Links page - links to info on asset-based approaches to social policy
* Links to info on antipoverty measures and poverty reduction/elimination initiatives:
[ Antipoverty - Provincial/territorial ] [ Antipoverty - National and International ]

Measuring social exclusion in Canada:
an Explanatory Study on Cumulative Disadvantage
Joël Gauthier and Myriam Fortin presented major findings from their research on social exclusion at the International Conference on poverty reduction and poverty measurement in Montreal (November 30 - December 2, 2011 - see the link below).

The objectives of this research were to propose an operational definition of social exclusion, then, using this definition, to explore the extent of social exclusion in Canada and identify some characteristics that significantly increase the probability of being excluded. Using data from the first six cycles of the National Population Health Survey and seven dimensions to investigate exclusion (weak labour force attachment, low income, low level of education, poor health, food insecurity, dissatisfaction with neighbourhood and weak social support), this research found that over 1994 to 2004, 8.5% of working-age Canadians accumulated disadvantages on at least three of those dimensions of exclusion (and as such are considered 'excluded' according to our working definition), while another 3.6% accumulated at least four (and are considered 'deeply excluded'). The characteristics that most increase the probability of exclusion and deep exclusion are being a member of a lone parent family, being unattached, having experienced serious traumas during childhood (e.g. physical abuse), and living in Eastern Canada.

By Gilles:
I'm told that the conference proceedings, including the presentation by Gauthier and Fortin, will "soon" be available in electronic format from Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal [ http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/ ] and other digital bookstores. When the book is available, you'll find links to bookstores where you can purchase a copy on the website of the Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics [ http://www.ciqss.umontreal.ca/en/whatsNew.html ]

Social Statistics, Poverty and Social Exclusion:
Perspectives from Quebec, Canada and Abroad
International Conference on poverty reduction and
poverty measurement in Canada and the world
http://www.ciqss.umontreal.ca/conf_statsoc_2011/presentation_en.html
November 30 - December 2, 2011
Montreal
The main objective of this international conference was to take stock of the state of current research and identify knowledge gaps.

Preliminary program (PDF - 805K, 6 pages)
http://www.ciqss.umontreal.ca/conf_statsoc_2011/program.html

Organizing Institutions:

* Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics
http://www.ciqss.umontreal.ca/en/whatsNew.html

* Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (English home page)
http://www.mess.gouv.qc.ca/Index_en.asp

Index finds inequalities in Canadians' quality of life
October 20, 2011
OTTAWA — A generation of solid economic growth has meant little in the everyday lives of most Canadians, according to a new index of wellbeing. The finding is a yellow light for decision-makers that social unrest is just around the corner unless deep changes are made, warns Roy Romanow, the advisory board chairman of the University of Waterloo group that created the index. The index suggests the middle class, in particular, is eroding. (...) The Canadian Index of Wellbeing is meant to be GDP's alter ego, measuring the quality of life in society in ways gross domestic product does not.

How are Canadians Really Doing?
Highlights: Canadian Index of Wellbeing 1.0 (PDF - 3.3MB, 66 pages)
October 2011
Table of contents:
1. Executive Summary
2. Why Canada Needs the CIW
- GDP: What You Need to Know
- The CIW Framework and Methodology
3. First Results – Trends and Statistical Highlights
- Community Vitality
- Democratic Engagement
- Education
- Environment
- Healthy Populations
- Leisure and Culture
- Living Standards
- Time Use
4. Connecting the Dots: From Research to Policy
- Ideas for Positive Change
- Conclusion
5. How to Use the CIW
- A First Community User – Barrie-Simcoe
- Other Ideas
6. What’s Next for the CIW?

Source:
Canadian Index of Wellbeing
The CIW Network is an independent, non-partisan group, based at the University of Waterloo within the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, and operates under the leadership of an advisory board of accomplished Canadians and international experts. Its mission is to report on the wellbeing of Canadians, and promote a dialogue on how to improve it through evidence-based policies that are responsive to the needs and values of Canadians.

More site content from the CIW Network - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading.

Conference on poverty reduction and poverty measurement
in Canada and the world:

Social Statistics, Poverty and Social Exclusion:
Perspectives from Quebec, Canada and Abroad
International conference
November 30 - December 2, 2011
Montreal
[Simultaneous translation in French and English.]

Version française du site:
Conférence internationale Statistiques sociales, exclusion sociale et pauvreté :
perspectives québécoises, canadiennes et internationales
30 novembre - 2 décembre 2011
Montréal

The main objective of this international conference is to take stock of the state of current research and identify knowledge gaps:
* How can poverty data be used to compare the situation in different industrialized nations?
* What are the scope and the limitations of such comparisons?
* How can we define the main dimensions and develop appropriate indicators of social exclusion?
* How can we develop process indicators that will allow us to recognize situations of exclusion?
* How can social statistics be used to study the influencing factors and the consequences of all dimensions of poverty?
* How can statistics be used to study the financial and social cost of poverty, material deprivation, the use of rights, life courses and solutions?
* How can we use statistics to build a score card that accounts for all those dimensions to evaluate the outcomes of the Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion?

Conference Themes
1: Interprovincial and International Comparisons of Poverty: indicators and data sources
2: Influencing Factors and Consequences of Poverty
3: Dimensions of Social Exclusion
4: Recent Developments and future perspectives

Preliminary program (PDF - 805K, 6 pages)

Register online - early bird special until October 21!

Organizing Institutions:
* Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics
* Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

June 15, 2011
Low Income Lines, 2009-2010
HTML version <=== Click this link for detailed information on each of the three measures listed below.
PDF version (1.8MB, 39 pages)
In order to provide a holographic or complete picture of low income, Statistics Canada uses three complementary low income lines:
- the Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs)
- the Low Income Measures (LIMs)
- the Market Basket Measure (MBM)

StatCan always takes great pains to emphasize that "these measures are not measures of poverty, but strictly measures of low income."
StatCan has been consistently repeating that disclaimer since Ivan Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada, posted the following edict on his agency's website in 1997:

"On poverty and low income" - by Ivan Fellegi (1997)
- explains why his agency's low income cut-offs should not be used as the "official" poverty line for Canada.

How can LICOs, LIMs and the MBM can be measures of low income without being measures of poverty?
(A rose is a rose is a rose, no?...)

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Social Statistics, Poverty and Social Exclusion:
Perspectives from Quebec, Canada and Abroad
Conference
Montreal, November 30 - December 2, 2011
This link takes you further down on the page you're now reading, where you'll find detailed information in English et en français about this International conference sponsored by the Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics and the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale.

Governments and non-governmental organizations generally tend to use one of two ways of looking at and measuring poverty -- in absolute or relative terms.
(There are also subjective measures, i.e., polls and surveys about poverty, but this page deals mainly with the quantitative measurement of poverty.)

Absolute measures of poverty compare household income with the cost of a basket of specific goods and services. The Fraser Institute's Christopher Sarlo (see below) has written extensively on poverty in Canada in recent years. His publications on the subject of poverty measurement are considered by many as the bibles of the absolute poverty measure in Canada.
You'll find links to some of these reports and commentaries in the Fraser Institute section of this page.

Relative poverty measures compare household income and spending patterns of groups or individuals with the income and spending patterns of the general population.
Statistics Canada's Low income cut-offs (LICOs) [this link takes you lower down on this page] are considered by most as the bible of relative poverty measures in Canada.

Within those two broad approaches, there are a number of variations, just as there are a number groups in Canada involved in poverty measurement.

The debate over poverty lines is much broader than absolute and relative measures of poverty. It touches on societal values - what level of poverty do we find tolerable in Canada? What other "benchmarks" can use to assess how well we're doing as a society? Many social researchers and advocates feel that quality of life and social indicators should also be included in the study of poverty. I agree with them; that's why you'll find links on this page to sites and documents dealing with the human side of poverty, like Statistics Canada's Health Indicators and the Canadian Index of Wellbeing.
See also:
(these links take you further down on the page you're now reading)
* The Market Basket Measure
* Canadian Index of Wellbeing
* The Ontario Deprivation Index
* The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness
* Newfoundland and Labrador Market Basket Measure

Overviews of poverty measurement in Canada:

"On poverty and low income" - by Ivan Fellegi (1997)
- explains why his agency's low income cut-offs should not be used as the "official" poverty line for Canada.

How can LICOs, LIMs and the MBM can be measures of low income without being measures of poverty?
(A rose is a rose is a rose, no?...)

----------------------

Related link:

A New Era for Measuring Poverty in Canada
Posted by Iglika Ivanova
June 18, 2010
Last Thursday’s Statistics Canada release of individual and household income data for 2008 marks a new era in the study of poverty in Canada. Instead of reporting only on the Low Income Cut Offs (LICO), as they used to, Statistics Canada reported on three of the most common measures of low income in the same publication (LICO, the low income measure and the market basket measure). Gone are the days of looking for different studies produced by different institutions to compare trends of low income in Canada. Even more importantly for those of us looking for reliable and timely data on low incomes, Statistics Canada has now taken over producing the Market Basket Measure (MBM) from HRSDC.
Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics Blog
[ The Progressive Economics Forum ]

An oldie goldie:

Low Income Measurement in Canada (PDF file - 220K, 20 pages)
December 2004
by Philip Giles
Description and comparison of measures of low income:
- Low-income cutoffs (LICO)
- Low income measures (LIM)
- Market Basket Measure (MBM)
- Future developments
Source:
Statistics Canada

Lies, damn lies and...
Poverty statistics?

If your eyes glaze over at the mere mention of poverty lines and/or unemployment statistics, I think you'll appreciate this short discussion/reflexion paper by Canadian social policy experts Richard Shillington and John Stapleton. It's an overview of, and observations about, Canada's poverty measurement tools; it includes discussion (or reflexion) points for further study or group discussions. Did YOU know that there are four different ways to measure Employment Insurance coverage of the Canadian workforce? And what the heck is a B/U ratio, anyway? Click below to find out.

Cutting Through the Fog:
Why is it so hard to make sense of poverty measures? (PDF - 186K, 22 pages)
Richard Shillington and John Stapleton
May 2010
(...) This paper is intended to open up some room for thoughtful discussion about poverty issues among interested Canadians. The goal is not to tell anyone what to think, but to encourage all of us to question.
(...) Data can be presented in many different ways, depending on the goals of the person or group providing the data. It is important to question what is being measured, how it is measured, and when it was measured.
(...) Being critical of the statistics used as “evidence” for a point of view involves finding out what assumptions underlie the numbers.
For example, you might hear that:
• the percentage of Canadians living in poverty is around 15%...or only 5%, or
• Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program covers approximately 85% of the unemployed…or only 45%.
(...) The gap between these statistics is so large because they measure different things.

Source:
Metcalf Foundation
The Foundation was established by George Cedric Metcalf in 1960. It currently makes grants totaling approximately $5.5 million each year and has an asset base of approximately $130 million. The Foundation works primarily in three areas: environment, performing arts and low-income communities. Our work is focused on supporting organizations that are working collaboratively to cultivate long-term solutions to issues, thinking broadly in pursuit of comprehensive approaches and engaging communities to take a meaningful role in decisions affecting their lives

Related links:

Open Policy - John Stapleton's website
Tristat Resources - Richard Shillington's website

See also:
* the Non-Governmental Organizations Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ngobkmrk.htm
* the Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk3.htm

Poverty in Canada
- incl. links to : * History of poverty in Canada * Measures of poverty in Canada * Low income groups in Canada * Effects of poverty in Canada * Assistance for poor people in Canada (Government transfers and intervention - Non-governmental assistance) * more...
Source:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poverty absent from premiers' agenda
[CA] 4 Aug 2010

The Evolution of Poverty Measurement
- with special reference to Canada (PDF file - 811K, 149 pages)
February 9, 2007
[Second Draft - Please check the author's website for the most recent version]
This essay discusses the evolution of the measurement of poverty over the last thirty years and its links to the evolving debates on human rights and social exclusion – with special reference to the Canadian debate
Source:
Lars Osberg
Economics Department
Dalhousie University
CV/Publications by Lars Osberg - 175+ links articles, book chapters, etc.

How do we measure poverty?
November 24, 2006
NOTE: at the bottom of the poverty measurement article,
you'll find links to all of the following related CBC content and external links:
* Paid to be Poor
* the fifth estate: No Way Home
* CBC News: Report says government needs to 'break the back' of poverty in Canada (May 5, 2004)
* Little change in child poverty rates (Nov. 24, 2003)
* Child poverty goes up in Toronto (June 30, 2003)
* New poverty indicator shows 1 in 8 Canadians poor (May 27, 2003)
* 'Persistent poverty' crippling Canadian children (Nov. 4, 2002)
* More Canadian children living in poverty (May 6, 2002)
* 1 in 4 Saskatoon kids lives in poverty: report (Nov. 20, 2001)
* Ottawa told defeating child poverty requires money, programs (Sept. 10, 2001)
* Poverty rate inflated: Fraser Institute report (July 23, 2001)
* Child poverty remains a national crisis (Nov. 24, 1999)
* More Canadian families slipping into poverty (May 8, 1999)
* 'Social program changes attack poor' (Mar. 4, 1999)
RELATED EXTERNAL LINKS:
* Measuring Poverty in Canada - The Fraser Institute
* Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
* On poverty and low income - Statistics Canada
* Campaign 2000
* Campaign Against Child Poverty
* UN Special Session on Children
Source:
CBC

Also from CBC:

The debate over Canada's poverty line
November 12, 2007
By Armina Ligaya
Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Yet even as the nation is in the midst of an economic boom, there are still those who struggle to buy life's necessities. Past and current governments have implemented a myriad of strategies to help the country's most vulnerable. They range from boosting social assistance to, at the more punitive extreme, restricting employment insurance. Debate continues over what's the best approach to eradicate poverty, assuming that is in fact a reachable goal.
Source:
CBC News Online

Working Definitions of Poverty (PDF file, 250K)
in the Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 2000
from the Canadian Council on Social Development
- written in August 2000, this chapter from the Fact Book on Poverty explains eight different poverty measures.
[Since the release of the Canadian Fact Book on Poverty, the federal and provincial/territorial governments have released the Market Basket Measure or MBM (this link takes you to MBM info further down on this page)]

A measure of poverty in Canada : a guide to the debate about poverty lines (PDF file - 126K, 22 pages)
March 2002
Greg deGroot-Maggetti
"Choosing a poverty line depends on how high or how low we set our sights for the well-being of the materially disadvantaged in our society."
Source : Citizens for Public Justice

Solving poverty:
First it has to be defined
January 5, 2007
By Neil Reynolds
"OTTAWA -- How do poor families spend so much more money than they earn? By one measure -- the National Council of Welfare -- the average poor Canadian family spends $4,855 a year more than the $14,366 it receives as income, a difference of 33 per cent. By another measure -- the Fraser Institute -- the average poor Canadian family spends $9,370 more than the $9,114 it receives as income, a difference of more than 100 per cent. (...) The solution to this mystery will help determine the number of poor households in Canada..."
Source:
The Globe and Mail

Argh.

There's no "mystery" at all here for anyone who works with these types of statistics --- you can't just compare the numbers obtained in one study of household spending with those from another study of declared income. Methodologies vary, as do sample sizes and a number of other factors.

So why do it?
Perhaps to try and discredit an organization like the National Council of Welfare that uses these numbers to support of initiatives like its Solving Poverty report?

I generally try to stay out of the debate about the merits of absolute and relative poverty measurement. In this case, however, it wasn't the spurious juxtaposition of StatCan studies on household spending and income that moved me to comment, nor the absolutist views of Christopher Sarlo (click the link in the previous line for related info). Rather, it was a short reference in the article to the Council that simply pissed me off enough that I wanted to set the record straight. The reference in question? "The Ottawa-based National Council of Welfare is a conventional lobby organization that seeks to increase federal funding to fight poverty."

Uh-uh.
There isn't even a hint of "conventional lobby organization" here --- the Council is a citizen's advisory body whose mandate is enshrined in federal legislation since 1969.
The Council's role is not to advance the cause (read "profit margin") of the big drug companies or the car or tobacco industry - as "conventional lobby organizations" do - but rather to advise the federal government about "the needs and problems of low-income Canadians and on social and related programs and policies which affect their welfare". All Council members are private citizens drawn from across Canada and appointed by the Governor-in-Council, and they serve in their personal capacities rather than as representatives of organizations or agencies. There is no personal gain for Council members.

The above Globe and Mail article is dated January 5, 2007.
Here's an article on the same topic that appeared in the Toronto Star the next day:

Editorial: Defining poverty crucial first step
January 6, 2007
How many Canadians are really living in poverty today? How much money would it take to lift them over the poverty line? Regrettably, no one can say for certain because Canada lacks an official measure of poverty. And without such a measure, governments and advocates for the poor can only guess at how widespread poverty is, whether it is getting better or worse, and what must be done to eliminate it or even cut it in half.
Source:
The Toronto Star

------------------

Related link from the
National Council of Welfare:

Poverty Profile 2007 (Jan/Feb. 2010)
Poverty Profile is a regular publication of the Council that is based on survey data from Statistics Canada. It includes detailed information about poverty rates and numbers, depth of poverty, duration of poverty, common sources of income for poor people, income inequality in Canada and poverty and the paid labour market.
- also includes links to earlier Poverty Profiles, from 1998 to 2004

Poverty Profile Bulletins:
* No. 1: Introduction to Poverty Trends in Canada, 1976-2007
* No. 2: Poverty Trends by Family Type
* No. 3: Poverty Trends by Province
* No. 4: A Snapshot of Children Living in Poverty
* Methodology, Definitions and Data Sources

NOTE: Please click the link below and use the search engine on the Council's new website to find any particular report.

Source:
National Council of Welfare

From Statistics Canada:

June 17, 2010
Income of Canadians, 2008
This report contains analysis, charts and time series at the Canada, province and some census metropolitan area level. To provide a more complete picture of low income, the report includes analysis using three complementary low income lines: the low income cut-offs, the low income measures and the market basket measure (MBM). The first two were developed by Statistics Canada; the MBM is based on concepts developed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
- includes three tables:
----- Selected income concepts by main family types, 2007 and 2008
----- Selected income concepts for economic families of two persons or more by province, 2008 ith two persons or more.
----- Percentage of persons in low income (1992 base after-tax income low income cut-offs)

"Median after-tax income for families with two or more people, adjusted for inflation, was $63,900 in 2008, virtually unchanged from 2007. This followed four years of growth. For unattached individuals, after-tax income also remained unchanged, at $24,900. This was the first time in three years in which no significant change was observed." (Excerpt)

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June 7, 2010
Revising Statistics Canada's Low Income Measure (LIM)
June 2010
Statistics Canada introduced its Low Income Measure (LIM) in 1991 as a complement to its Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs). The Low Income Measure (LIM) is a dollar threshold that delineates low-income in relation to the median income and different versions of this measure are in wide use internationally. Over the intervening 25 years there have been a number of useful methodological and conceptual developments in the area of low income measurement. To make the Canadian LIM methodology consistent with international norms and practices, a revision of the Statistics Canada LIM methodology appears desirable.

Table of contents:
* Introduction
* The LIM and proposed modifications
* What happens to low-income statistics with all three modifications?
* Summary
* Tables and figures
* References
* Appendix A: Glossary
* More information
* PDF version (806K, 31 pages)

Source:
Income Research Paper Series
[ Statistics Canada ]

Low income Measurement in Canada:
What do different Lines and Indexes tell us?
May 2010
By Xuelin Zhan
Income Statistics Division
Abstract and Summary HTML)
Complete research paper (PDF - 1.2MB, 44 pages)
While Canada has never had an official poverty line, there are a number of low income lines widely employed to inform public debates and program initiatives. (...) This study assesses the existing Low Income Cut-Offs (LICO), Low Income Measures (LIM), and Market Basket Measure (MBM) lines, together with a fixed LIM, by using several distribution sensitive indexes. We found that the low income lines tracked each other well in the long-run. But, in the short-run, they often behaved differently.

Table of contents:
* Introduction
* A comparison of LICO, LIMs and MBM
* Low income indexes under alternative lines
* Who fall between the lines?
* Who contributes more to overall low income? A decomposition analysis
* Summary and conclusions
* Tables and figures
* Appendix 1 Methodology
* References
* More information

NOTA : La version française suit l'anglais ci-dessous.

Social Statistics, Poverty and Social Exclusion:
Perspectives from Quebec, Canada and Abroad
International conference
November 30 - December 2, 2011
Montreal
This conference aims to take stock of the state of current research on poverty reduction initiatives in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
- includes presentations on a number of themes (see Call for Papers below) as well as pre-conference workshops on the following topics:
* Potential and Limitations of Target Development Methodology
* Methodological issues of inter-regional and interprovincial comparisons and possible solutions
* Methodological issues of international comparisons and possible solutions
* Current Statistical Systems and Data Coupling

The conference program will be posted to the conference website on April 15, 2011.

Call for Papers * (PDF - 62K, 2 pages)
All researchers working in the following areas to submit a proposal:
Theme 1: Interprovincial and International Comparisons of Poverty: indicators and data sources
Theme 2: Influencing Factors and Consequences of Poverty
Theme 3: Dimensions of Social Exclusion
Theme 4: Recent Developments and future perspectives
[ more information about the four themes ]

* The deadline for proposals was March 21, 2011.
Proposals may be submitted in French or English, and presentations may be made in either language.
See the Call for Papers PDF file above for more info.

Organizing Institutions:
* Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics
* Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

Version française:

Conférence internationale Statistiques sociales, exclusion sociale et pauvreté :
perspectives québécoises, canadiennes et internationales
30 novembre - 2 décembre 2011
Montréal
L'objectif principal de la Conférence internationale Statistiques sociales, exclusion sociale et pauvreté : perspectives québécoises, canadiennes et internationales est de faire le point sur l'état des connaissances dans le domaine de la pauvreté et de l'exclusion sociale et d'identifier les lacunes à combler à cet égard. Cette conférence offrira des présentations sur les quatre grands thèmes (Voir Appel de communications ci-dessous) ainsi qu'une série d'ateliers qui précèderont la conférence, sur les thèmes suivants:
* Méthodologie d'établissement de « cibles » nationales en matière de réduction de la pauvreté, possibilités et limites;
* Enjeux méthodologiques des comparaisons interrégionales et interprovinciales et pistes de solution;
* Enjeux méthodologiques des comparaisons internationales et pistes de solution;
* Systèmes statistiques actuels et couplage de données.

Le programme de la conférence sera disponible sur le site à compter du 15 avril 2011.

Appel de communications * (fichier PDF - 105Ko., 2 pages)
Les chercheurs menant des travaux sur les thèmes suivants sont invités à soumettre une proposition de communication :
* Comparaisons interprovinciales et internationales de pauvreté : indicateurs et sources de données
* Déterminants et conséquences de la pauvreté
* Exclusion sociale et ses principales dimensions
* Développements récents et perspectives d'avenir

* La date limite pour soumettre une proposition est le 21 mars 2011.
Les propositions peuvent être soumises en français ou en anglais, ainsi que les présentations elles-mêmes..
Suivez le lien ci-dessus pour de plus amples renseignements.

Institutions organisatrices
* Centre interuniversitaire québécois de statistiques sociales (English Home Page)
* Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (English Home Page)

The New Poverty Agenda:
Reshaping Policies in the 21st Century
Conference (Kingston)
August 18-20, 2008
Excerpt from the Conference theme:
"The new poverty agenda demands new policy responses. An effective anti-poverty strategy depends on a wide range of instruments: income transfers, tax policy, asset-building strategies, early childhood interventions, education, labour market programs, housing and social services. An effective response also requires a judicious balancing of general programs and targeted initiatives for particular vulnerable groups, such as children in care, recent immigrants, single-parent families, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities, and displaced workers."

NOTE: if you click on the link to the conference home page (The New Poverty Agenda), you'll find links to all 20+ presentations, but they're only identified by author rather than title.
To see the complete list of presentation titles, go to the Conferences page of this site:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/confer.htm#new_poverty_agenda_conference

Sessions:
* The New Poverty Agenda * Income Transfers and Asset Building * The Tax Regime * Early Childhood Initiatives and Education * Addressing Poverty and Other Social Policy Challenges through Social Risk Management: A New Conceptual Framework? * Employment and Training Programs * Integrated Approaches in Communities: Place-based Interventions * Roundtable on the Politics of Poverty: Can Poverty be a Priority?

Source:
Queen's School of Policy Studies

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The federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada:
EVIDENCE - Meeting No. 23 of the
Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
(39th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION)
April 10, 2008

Recommended reading --- this transcript is over 40 printed pages of valuable information concerning the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada, including an extended discussion of the relative merits of the low-income measures in use in Canada (LICOs, LIMs and MBMs ) and elsewhere in the world.

Witnesses:

Frank Fedyk (Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Research, Department of Human Resources and Social Development)
Sylvie Michaud (Director, Income Statistics Division, Statistics Canada)
Garnett Picot (Director General, Socio-Economic and Business Analysis Branch, Statistics Canada)
Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare)
Doug Murphy (Assistant Director, Economic Security Policy, Department of Human Resources and Social Development)
Shawn Tupper (Director General, Social Policy Development, Department of Human Resources and Social Development)

Source:
House of Commons Standing Committee on
Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA)
[ Parliament of Canada website ]

Recent releases from the Parliamentary Research Library:
(Government of Canada)

Poverty Reduction Strategies in Quebec and in Newfoundland and Labrador
By Chantal Collin (Political and Social Affairs Division)
26 October 2007
HTML version
PDF version (153K, 15 pages)
[ version française ]
Table of Contents:
* Introduction
Québec's Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion
* A. Framework Legislation
* B. Action Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion
* C. Mobilizing the Stakeholders
* D. Agencies: Research Centre and Advisory Committee
* E. Measuring Progress
* F. Critique of Quebec’s Action Plan
Newfoundland and Labrador's Poverty Reduction Strategy
* A. Consultation Process
* B. Poverty Reduction Strategy
* C. Definition and Measurement of Poverty
* D. Action Plan
* E. Current Funding and Future Assessments

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Poverty Reduction in Canada - The Federal Role
By Chantal Collin (Political and Social Affairs Division)
23 October 2007
HTML version
PDF version (118K, 12 pages)
Table of Contents:
* Who Is Poor in Canada?
* Calls for a National Anti-Poverty Strategy – What Role Could the Federal Government Play?
* A. Key Features of Poverty Reduction Strategies in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ireland and the United Kingdom
* 1. Social and Economic Links
* 2. Multi-Year Action Plans
* 3. Progress Measurement and Administrative Framework
* B. What Could Be Done?
* 1. Key Challenges
* 2. The Canada Social Transfer: A Need for Principles and Objectives to Guide Social Spending
* 3. Social Union Framework Agreement: A Possible Model?
* 4. Public Accountability and Transparency
* 5. Immediate Action at the Federal Level

Source:
Parliamentary Research Library

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Newfoundland and Labrador
Market Basket Measure (NLMBM)
Thanks to an anonymous newsletter subscriber for pointing out that Newfoundland and Labrador's new customized Market Basket Measure doesn't appear on the Antipoverty Links page of this website. In my haste to share the link to the First Progress Report on the NL Poverty Reduction Strategy (PDF - 4MB, 76 pages, December 2009) last week, I skimmed past the section on the NLMBM in that report. According to my subscriber's email, "... NL has developed their own variation on the market basket measure, the NLMBM, which uses tax data rather than surveys, and therefore purports to capture the entire population. They've also developed a NLMBM of Housing Affordability. Part of what's interesting is that they've got gender analysis embedded in the NLMBM data that's being developed - not a claim that can be made about any of the other poverty measures."
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I can't find any technical information on the NLMBM online at this point in time (Dec. 22/09),
but I've pulled together a few tidbits of information from NL reports that might pique your curiosity if you're interested in poverty measurement.
---

Newfoundland and Labrador
Market Basket Measure (NLMBM)
In the 2006 Action Plan:
[ Reducing Poverty: An Action Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador (PDF file - 1.6MB, 60 pages), 2006]
...a commitment was made to improve capacity to measure and track progress in poverty reduction.
[Excerpts] A major innovation has been the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador Market Basket Measure (NLMBM). This new measure uses a similar approach to the federal government's Market Basket Measure (MBM). Like the MBM, it compares the incomes of families to the cost of a basket of goods and services necessary to live a productive and socially inclusive life. Unlike the MBM and all other available measures of low-income that use surveys to estimate low-income levels, the NLMBM uses tax-filer data and other sources to provide more accurate income and expense information for all tax-filers. This allows for the reporting of low-income levels in communities and neighbourhoods, as well as results for other subgroups such as different age groups or family types. This is important because it allows for the tracking of progress for different parts of the province as well as for different vulnerable groups so that it can be ensured that PRS is working for all. The NLMBM is available on Community Accounts [ www.communityaccounts.ca]

The NLMBM is developed and maintained by the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency.
In future years, NLMBM depth, persistence and other indicators of low income will be reported as they become available.

NOTE: For more info on the NLMBM, see Appendix II of the first progress report (PDF - 4MB, 76 pages, December 2009) or
request information from povertyreduction@gov.nl.ca

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MAY 20 (2010) UPDATE:

The N&L Market Basket Measure was released in January 2010 into the Community Accounts [ www.communityaccounts.ca] data. On the Community Accounts page, the NL MBM shows as the “Incidence of Low Income” under the “Income, Consumption & Leisure” accounts. For most geographies it can be broken down by family type. Currently available for 2005.

Newfoundland and Labrador Market Basket Measure Maps are presented by Rural Secretariat Region. These maps show incidence of low income for communities by Rural Secretariat Region. They also display a Remoteness Index which is a spacial measurement of access to essential government and community services.

Related link:

Newfoundland and Labrador
Poverty Reduction Strategy
The Poverty Reduction Strategy is a Government-wide approach to transform Newfoundland and Labrador from a province with the most poverty to one with the least over a ten year period. The strategy includes initiatives and programs which target the groups most vulnerable to poverty.
- includes * Poverty Reduction Initiatives * Guiding Principles * Documents and News Releases * Partner Departments and Agencies
Source:
Human Resources, Labour and Employment

Related links:
Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

---

The CCSD position paper Defining and Re-Defining Poverty: A CCSD Perspective (October 2001) offers a good overview of the debate around the different approaches used to measure poverty in Canada.
Social policy advocates, including the CCSD, have strongly defended a relative definition of poverty, arguing that to be poor is to be distant from the mainstream of society and to be excluded from the resources, opportunities and sources of subjective and objective well-being which are readily available to others.

Related links:

New measure for the pain of poverty
December 3, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten and Tanya Talaga
One in eight Ontario children live in families that can't afford fresh fruits and vegetables every day, or can't afford to replace a broken appliance or share the occasional meal with friends or family. These are a few of the 10 indicators listed in a new provincial poverty measure called the Ontario Deprivation Index, introduced Wednesday by Children's Minister Laurel Broten as part of the government's first annual report on the province's poverty reduction plan. The 10 "deprivation indicators" are not intended to be a comprehensive list. Instead, they are a sample of items and activities common to most Ontarians but out of reach for poor households, the report says.
Source:
Parent Central
[ Toronto Star ]

Where are you on the Deprivation Index?
By Laurie Monsebraaten
December 2, 2009
One in eight Ontario children is living in poverty, according to a new provincial measure released Wednesday that looks at whether families can afford items on a list of basic necessities. Families not able to afford two or more items from a list of 10 indicators on the Ontario Deprivation Index are considered as "having a poverty level standard of living," the McGuinty government says in its first annual report on Ontario's poverty reduction strategy.
Source:
Toronto Star

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National Post editorial board: A new way to overstate poverty
December 4, 2009
(...) The McGuinty government has chosen to use a measure of relative poverty known as a “deprivation index,” popular in England, Scotland, New Zealand and elsewhere. Any Ontarian unable to eat fresh fruit and vegetables daily, or meat, fish or “a vegetarian equivalent” every second day is considered poor. (...) We have long argued that Statistics Canada’s Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) — a commonly cited measurement of poverty in Canada — was a useless, relativist index. But we think Ontario’s deprivation index is even worse. No doubt, however, the bureaucrats like it just fine — for it justifies the case for more government intervention in the economy.
Source:
National Post

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Picturing poverty: Ontario's new Material Deprivation Index
By Chandra Pasma
July 9, 2009
"(...) Canada has no official definition of poverty. There are a number of definitions and measures that are commonly but unofficially used for social policy discussions, but no formal agreement as to what we are seeking to eliminate in Canada. For this reason, provincial poverty reduction strategies have had to choose their own definition and measurement of poverty. Measuring is essential to tracking movement and providing accountability.

Ontario chose to develop a new measure, the Ontario Material Deprivation Index. Ontario’s strategy will use this measure in conjunction with two other measures: 40% of median income as a measurement of the depth of poverty, and 50% of median income to measure low income. (Although both of these are relative measures, Ontario chose to fix its target of 25% reduction of poverty in 5 years according to the 50% low income measure fixed at its 2008 level and adjusted by inflation only). The Deprivation Index fits in the context of these other two measures as a way of understanding standard of living. It is not considered to be a complete description of poverty, but a way of recognizing common symptoms of poverty. It includes multiple elements of poverty, including deprivation that leads to social isolation, issues of economic security, and the ability to make changes in your life.
[ more... ]

The Ontario Material Deprivation Index
was developed by the Daily Bread Food Bank
in conjunction with people living in poverty.
Source:
Chandra's Blog
[ Citizens for Public Justice ]

The Index consists of a list of ten items considered as basic necessities by at least one-half of Ontarians surveyed, and households whose income is below 50% of the median income and who are missing two or more of the items on the deprivation index, they are considered to be persistently poor.

Index of Economic Well-being
Has economic well-being increased or decreased in recent years, and is it higher or lower in one country compared to others? Traditionally these questions have been answered by looking at trends in and comparisons of GDP per capita, but this is a poor measure of economic well-being. It measures consumption incompletely, ignoring the value of leisure and longer life spans, and it also ignores the value of accumulation for future generations. Furthermore, since it is an average, GDP per capita gives no indication of the likelihood that an individual will share in prosperity nor of the degree of anxiety with which individuals contemplate their futures."
- incl. links to:
Introduction and Methodology - The Index for Canada -The Index for Canada and the United States - The Index for Canada and the Provinces - The Index for OECD Countries - An Index of Labour Market Well-being - Weighting tool for Canada and OECD Countries
Source:
Centre for the Study of Living Standards (Ottawa)

The Social Determinants Of Health
The Public Health Agency of Canada has launched a new web site related to Canada’s work in the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. It provides information on the Canadian reference group, on the work of the Agency with governments of other countries to develop policy frameworks to address the determinants of health inequalities, and links to WHO knowledge networks and other resources.
Source of this info:
Wellesley Institute Blog

Related link:

Canada's Response to WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health
- incl links to: WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health * Some Recent Activities of Canada’s Commissioner Monique Bégin * Canadian Reference Group (CRG) * Knowledge Networks * Country Action * What's New * Frequently Asked Questions * Events * Resources * Glossary * Links
Source:
Public Health Agency of Canada

And another related link:

From the
Atlas of Canada (Govt. of Canada):

Health
List of Topics:
* Health Behaviours * Non-medical Determinants of Health * Health Resources * Rural Health * Health Services Utilization * Health Status

Happiness Economics : We Love to See You Smile - April 10, 2007
American surveys over the past few decades seem to show that a personal sense of happpiness doesn't necessarily go along with a high Gross National Product. According to the author, many economists feel that it makes more sense to shift priorities to boosting other (non-GNP) forms of well-being, like happiness itself. Indeed, why not measure Gross National Happiness (GNH) in place of GNP?

The Economics of Happiness (PDF file - 104K, 13 pages)
2005
- from the Brookings Institution

A Plateau of Happiness
("A country's wealth may not always indicate the happiness of its people")
Source:
New York Times

The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness
June 20 to June 24, 2005

Gross National Happiness:
A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom
October 4, 2005
"What is happiness? In the United States and in many other industrialized countries, it is often equated with money. Economists measure consumer confidence on the assumption that the resulting figure says something about progress and public welfare. The gross domestic product, or G.D.P., is routinely used as shorthand for the well-being of a nation. But the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has been trying out a different idea. In 1972, concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan's newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation's priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H., or gross national happiness..."

Center for Bhutanese Studies

World Values Survey
The World Values Survey is organised as a network of social scientists coordinated by a central body, the World Values Survey Association. (...) The World Values Survey Association is founded in order to help social scientists and policy makers better understand worldviews and changes that are taking place in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world.

World Values Survey - from Wikipedia

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing:
Measuring What Matters
The CIW is being developed as a tool to account honestly and accurately for changes in our human, social, economic and natural wealth through a new index that can best capture the full range of factors that determine wellbeing in Canada – health prevention initiatives, clear air and water, genuine progress by our Aboriginal peoples, early childhood education, and other determinants of a healthy nation.
Source:
The Atkinson Foundation

Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada
Since the Second World War, economic growth statistics based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have been widely used as a proxy for societal wellbeing and prosperity. This was not the intention of those who created the GDP. (...) GDP-based measures were never meant to be used as a measure of progress, as they are today. In fact, activities that degrade our quality of life, like crime, pollution, and addictive gambling, all make the economy grow. The more fish we sell and the more trees we cut down, the more the economy grows. Working longer hours makes the economy grow. And the economy can grow even if inequality and poverty increase.

Personal Security Index 2003:
A reflection of how Canadians feel five years later
- includes: * Economic Security * Health Security * Physical Safety * Regional Differences
Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

The Happy Planet Index attempts to calculate life satisfaction and expectancy in relation to environmental impact. By this index, Vanuatu is #1, Columbia is #2, and Bhutan is #13, leaving the United States, at #150, in the dust.
Source:
New Economics Foundation (U.K.)

Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being (PDF file - 25K, 7 pages)
November 2005
- promoted by leading happiness researcher Ed Diener and a group of 50 prominent psychologists, sociologists, and economists.

World Database of Happiness
- covers the following themes:
* Consumption * Cultural climate * Crime * Demography * Education * Freedom * Geography * Happiness * Health * Inequality * Institutional quality * Law and order * Lifestyle * Modernity * Personality * Politics * Risks * Social climate * Values * War * Wealth
Source:
Erasmus University (Rotterdam)

Genuine Progress Index Links:

Centre for the Study of Living Standards (Ottawa)
Genuine Progress Index Pacific (Vancouver)
Canadian Index of Wellbeing
--- Atkinson Foundation (Toronto)
Genuine Progress Indicator Alberta ( from the Pembina Institute)
Genuine Progress Index Atlantic (Nova Scotia)
Genuine Progress Indicator - from Redefining Progress (California)

Links to other similar organizations (from GPI Atlantic)- 28 in all

Welfare benefit levels are also an absolute measure of poverty.
Here's where to find detailed interprovincial/territorial comparisons of welfare rates, as well as info concerning the treatment of assets and income from work and other sources in Canadian welfare programs:

From the
National Council of Welfare:

Welfare Incomes 2008
With the recession starting in 2008, more and more Canadians are having to deal with one of the 13 different social assistance systems, discovering how complicated, cumbersome and stigmatizing most are.

Bulletins No. 1 through 4 give you a snapshot of the welfare incomes situation in 2008 for 4 types of families, and a fifth document provides detail on the methodology. Each bulletin focuses on one family type and provides, for the 2008 calendar year, the following information for a household in that situation:
* the total annual estimated income for the household (including government benefits and any exempted income) in each jurisdiction
* the total annual estimated income of a household receiving welfare compared with the Low-Income Cutoffs, the Market Basket Measure and average incomes in all provinces (but not the territories)
* asset exemption rules for all jurisdictions (how much an applicant can have in assets and remain eligible for welfare)
* the extent of the decline in welfare incomes in recent years
* earnings exemption provisions (what portion of work income is excluded when calculating entitlement)

* Bulletin No. 1: Single person considered employable (PDF - 1.8MB, 6 pages)
* Bulletin No. 2: Single person with a disability (PDF - 1.7MB, 6 pages)
* Bulletin No. 3: Lone parent with a child aged two (PDF - 1.7MB, 6 pages)
* Bulletin No. 4: Couple with two children aged 10 and 15 (PDF - 1.6MB, 4 pages)
* Methodology (PDF - 1.3MB, 5 pages)
Source:
National Council of Welfare
The National Council of Welfare advises the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development in respect of any matters relating to social development that the Minister may refer to the Council for its consideration or that the Council considers appropriate.

------------------------------------------------------

Welfare Incomes 2006* fact sheets
on adequacy of welfare incomes

NOTE: Please click the link to the Council home page and use the search engine to find any particular report on their new website

For the past 20 years, the National Council of Welfare has been producing annual estimates of the incomes of individuals and families on welfare in each Canadian jurisdiction. In addition to an extensively-annotated table of welfare benefit levels for single clients (able-bodied and disabled) and families (one adult + one child and two adults + two children), the report includes information on prevailing welfare asset and income exemption levels in each province/territory, comparisons of welfare incomes over time and comparisons of current welfare incomes with various benchmarks. The fact sheets which were recently posted to the Council's website include several variations and permutations of income measures used in Canada, such as Statistics Canada's before- and after-tax low income cut-offs, before- and after-tax average incomes and before- and after-tax median incomes. For the first time, the 2006 edition of Welfare Incomes includes a comparison of welfare incomes and the Market Basket Measure (see related links below).

There are 17 fact sheets in total --- here's one that's worth examining even if you're not "a numbers person"...:

Fact Sheet 12 : Comparison of 2006 welfare incomes with 2006 Market Basket Measure and Old Age Security (PDF - 956K, 1 page)
- Welfare incomes as a percentage of MBM ranged from 27% in New Brunswick to 66% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
- OAS as a percentage of MBM ranged from 81% in Ontario to 101% in Quebec and New Brunswick.

Source:
Welfare Income series - includes archives back to 1999
[ Council Research & Publications ]
[ National Council of Welfare ]
The National Council of Welfare (NCW) is an arm's length advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development on matters of concern to low-income Canadians.

More info about the Market Basket Measure - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading

----------------------------

Welfare Incomes 2005 (PDF file - 1.4MB, 116 pages)
"Welfare Incomes 2005 estimates total welfare incomes for four types of households in each province and territory, for a total of 52 scenarios. The four household types we use are a single employable person, a single person with a disability, a lone-parent with a 2-year-old child, and a two-parent family with two children aged 10 and 15. The National Council of Welfare has published similar estimates since 1986."

Staggering losses in welfare incomes (PDF file - 24K, 2 pages)
Press release
August 24, 2006
"In Alberta, the income in real dollars of a single person on welfare has decreased by almost 50 percent since 1986. Since 1992 in Ontario, the welfare income of a lone parent with one child has decreased by almost $6,600 and a couple with two children has lost just over $8,700. The National Council of Welfare’s report, Welfare Incomes 2005, paints a dismal picture, and one that is getting worse. When adjusted for inflation, many 2005 welfare incomes were lower than they were in 1986. Most welfare incomes peaked in 1994 or earlier...."

FACT SHEETS from Welfare Incomes 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Province and Territory, Peak Year and 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Household Type: Losses, Peak Year to 2005
# Welfare Incomes Over Time: 1986 to 2005 by Province and Territory
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Province and Territory and Type of Household
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Type of Household and Province/Territory (graph)
# Adequacy of 2005 Welfare Incomes by Province
# The Clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement
# Changes in Welfare Incomes for Families with Children, 1997 to 2005 (graph)
# Number of People on Welfare, March 1995 to March 2005 (PDF file - 133K, 1 page)
# Methodology Used for Welfare Incomes

Google.ca Web Search : "welfare incomes report, canada"
Google.ca News Search : "welfare incomes report, canada"
Source:
Google.ca

Source:
National Council of Welfare
"The mandate of the National Council of Welfare is to advise the Minister of Social Development in respect of any matters relating to social welfare that the Minister may refer to the Council for its consideration or that the Council considers appropriate."

Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada is the country's national government statistical agency.
Statistics Canada's Low income cut-offs (LICOs) are considered by most as the bible of relative poverty measures in Canada - although the agency itself does not endorse the use of its LICOs as a proxy for poverty. A disclaimer to that effect can be found in all Statistics Canada LICO reports.

The latest LICO information from Statistics Canada:

June 3, 2009
Low income cut-offs for 2008
and low income measures for 2007 (PDF - 291K, 40 pages)
Low income cut-offs (LICOs) are income thresholds, determined by analysing family expenditure data, below which families will devote a larger share of income to the necessities of food, shelter and clothing than the average family would. To reflect differences in the costs of necessities among different community and family sizes, LICOs are defined for five categories of community size and seven of family size.
Low income measures (LIMs), on the other hand, are strictly relative measures of low income, set at 50% of adjusted median family income.
[ HTML version - use the links in the left-hand margin to navigate)

Source:
Income Research Paper Series <=== incl. links to LICOs and LIMs for earlier years and 100+ related income studies from StatCan
[ Free StatCan Internet publications <=== inc. links to 1000+ reports and studies --- click on the plus sign next to a subject to see all related reports. ]

-----------------------------

LICO CAVEAT:

Are Statistics Canada's Low-Income Cutoffs
an absolute or relative poverty measure??
How to reduce the poverty rate down from 64% to 5% without spending a penny.
June 20, 2008
By Andrew Mitchell and Richard Shillington

The recent release of estimates of the Low Income Cut-offs and the Low Income Measures has raised a number of crucial issues about the measurement of poverty or "low income" in Canada. LICOs haven't been "re-based" to reflect the rise in Canadian living standards since 1992, leaving the authors wondering whether StatCan is discreetly allowing LICOs to slip into irrelevance and obsolescence as a measure of poverty.
An excerpt:
"Since Statistics Canada no long re-bases the LICOs then we should refer to them as an absolute measure of poverty which does not change, at least not automatically, and not recently with general living standards. Past experience would suggest that re-basing the LICO would increase the income thresholds and increase the number of families below that threshold. We have no way of knowing how much of the trend of falling poverty rates over the last 15 years is due simply to the fact that the LICOs have not been rebased."
Source:
Richard Shillington is an Ottawa based social policy consultant.
Andrew Mitchell is the Senior Research Consultant with the Social Assistance in the New Economy Project at the University of Toronto and independent consultant.

"On poverty and low income" - by Ivan Fellegi (1997)
The Chief Statistician of Canada explains why his agency's low income cut-offs should not be used as the "official" poverty line for Canada.

Poverty in Canada substantially underestimated, reveal statistics (PDF file - 9K, 2 pages)
May 13, 2005
"OTTAWA - There have been hundreds of thousands of more people living on low incomes in Canada than previously thought, reveal revised Statistics Canada figures released Thursday. 'Basically poverty in Canada has been under-reported by the equivalent of a city the size of Winnipeg,' said Peter Bleyer, president of the Canadian Council on Social Development. The number living on what Statistics Canada defines as low incomes was 3.5 million in 2002, 628,000 more than previously reported, he said, noting that pushed the proportion of those living on low incomes to 11.6 per cent from the 9.5 per cent previously thought."
Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

Fraser Institute
"Competitive Market Solutions for Public Policy Problems"

Disclaimer:

The Fraser Institute represents the interests of Canada's business elite, and its views on social issues fit squarely within the ideological framework of the conservative corporate agenda.
I disagree with most of those views.

Gilles

The Bible of Absolute poverty measurement in Canada, by Chris Sarlo

From the The Fraser Institute :

NOTE : The links below are organized in chronological order, with the original 1992 Sarlo report on poverty in Canada appearing at the top and the most recent updates at the bottom of the list in this box.

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Poverty in Canada (PDF - 6.3MB, 259 pages)
By Christopher A. Sarlo
1992
"This book is a provocative challenge to current approaches to defining and measuring poverty. It argues that prevailing estimates greatly exaggerate the number of poor; that Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off, the standard tool used in virtually all studies measuring poverty, is badly flawed and that social assistance, in almost all cases, is perfectly adequate in covering all basic needs."

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Poverty in Canada - 2nd Edition, 1996 (PDF - 993K, 300 pages)
January 1996
By Christopher A. Sarlo
"An important message in the book is worthy of emphasis. Our compassion should not be measured by how high we set the poverty line. High relative measures simply end up exaggerating the extent of poverty and trivialize the predicament of those enduring real deprivation. This also risks undermining the genuine sense of compassion that is characteristic of Canadians."

---

Measuring Poverty in Canada
July 2001
By Christopher Sarlo
Excerpt:
"In Canada, there is a vast array of inefficient and employment-reducing programs and policies with overlapping function and jurisdiction: welfare and minimum wage are two examples. A more efficient alternative might be a guaranteed annual income issued as a universal demogrant--a transfer payment to all citizens (or residents) with no conditions on employment, earning, or income. "

For more details concerning the Sarlo guaranteed annual income proposal,
see p. 55-56 in Part II of the report (the second link below).

Complete report
in three PDF files:

Report Part I (PDF file - 236K, 10 pages) - cover, table of contents, executive summary
Report Part II (PDF file - 982K, 50 pages) - main chapters of the report
Report Part III (PDF file - 284K, 22 pages) - appendices

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Poverty in Canada: 2006 Update (PDF file - 605K, 7 pages)
By Christopher Sarlo
"This Fraser Alert uses the most recent data available (2004) to update the basic needs poverty lines and estimates poverty in Canada."

----------

Comment:

On the issue of poverty measurement, the Fraser Institute has consistently promoted the use of an absolute approach vs a relative approach - see below for links to more info on both measures, including earlier work by Christopher Sarlo proposing an absolute poverty line for Canada. I went through a period of about a year during which I'd dutifully visit the Fraser Institute's website on a regular basis to add links to their stuff on poverty measurement to my Poverty Measures page. I've since shifted gears, and I don't often include links to this type of information on my site nor in my newsletter.

My decision to focus more on the counterpoint arguments (in favour of a relative approach to measuring poverty) is based on my personal view that Fraser is merely trotting out articles supporting absolute poverty (most of which are written by Chris Sarlo) on a regular basis to keep reinforcing their view. If they say it often enough, they figure people will eventually accept it as the truth.

In my view, absolute poverty measures may be an appropriate benchmark for Third World countries, but Canada and other industrialized nations should be more concerned about measuring social inclusion and income inequality (i.e., relative measures) than the contents and generosity of a market basket of goods (absolute measures).

Gilles

Are Welfare Rates Too Low? [this link is broken]
[See p. 26]
The amount that society gives to the poor in the form of last-resort
social assistance programs is fundamentally a political choice.
by Chris Sarlo
Source:
Fraser Forum - July 2004
[ Fraser Institute ]
Every so often I visit the Fraser Institute's website to see the latest bumph from the fiscal and social conservative faction of Canadian society. When I perused the table of contents of the Institute's latest issue of the Fraser Forum (the "source" link above), I found this article by Chris Sarlo, poster boy for the Fraser Institute's ongoing campaign for the wider use of absolute poverty measures in Canada (vs. the StatCan Low Income Cutoffs).

The premise of this article is that in Canada, "aside from the single employable category, recipients’ income is reasonably close to the poverty line in most cases."
My reaction: perhaps true, but only if you're using the calorie-from-starvation budget numbers of the Fraser Institute...

The National Council of Welfare's 2002 edition of Welfare Incomes is the source of some of the figures in the table that's part of the Fraser Institute article.
The source of the figures in the table is cited as "National Council of Welfare, 2002; and calculations by the author."

In fact, only the first column in the Sarlo article is from the Council, and it's from Welfare Incomes 2002.
[ To find the estimated income figures used in the Fraser article, use the search engine on the National Council of Welfare's new website (launched in the summer of 2010) to find the 2002 Welfare Incomes report. ]

When I compared the figures from both sources, I realized that the Fraser article had substituted its own "Basic Poverty Needs Line" for the Council's use of the StatCan Low Income Cutoff.

Mr. Sarlo and the Fraser Institute have the right to use their absolute income levels instead of the Low Income Cutoffs - their levels do, after all, show that everyone on welfare is near the poverty line except employable singles (thus reinforcing their view).

What I find objectionable is Sarlo's use of the absolute numbers without documenting this more precisely in the source of his table. In the entire text that accompanies the table, there is no definition of "Basic Poverty Needs Line" - in fact, the author prefers to use the short form "poverty line", as if repeating it often enough will lull people into equating the numbers in his article with the other poverty line we keep hearing about, LICO. I suspect that some people who read the Fraser article will be wondering why we need to raise welfare rates when all clients except singles are already receiving welfare rates that appear to be close to or even higher than the poverty line.
It's because Fraser switched the numbers.

They're not using the same poverty line.
And they didn't tell us.
Shame.

‘Growing gap’ between rich and poor overstated;
evidence points to improvements in living standards for poorest Canadians
News Release
May 28, 2009
VANCOUVER, BC—The “gap” between the economic well-being of rich and poor Canadians may not be growing, says a new, peer-reviewed report from independent research organization the Fraser Institute. Past attempts to measure economic inequality using only reported incomes have ignored other factors that contribute to the real standard of living, Professor Chris Sarlo writes in the report The Economic Well-Being of Canadians: Is there a Growing Gap? “There is a commonly held notion that the rich are always getting richer and the poor poorer,” said Sarlo, an associate professor of economics at Nipissing University and Fraser Institute senior fellow. “However, most reports of a ‘growing gap’ in economic well-being between the rich and poor are based exclusively on reported incomes, ignoring other factors that help define one’s standard of living.”

The Economic Well-Being of Canadians: Is there a Growing Gap?
May 2009
by Chris Sarlo
Complete report (PDF - 842K, 58 pages)
Executive summary (HTML)
"(...)This paper has two purposes. First and principally it is a critical examination of the evidence for a “growing gap” in Canada. The paper will attempt to look at inequality in a somewhat broader context than is customary. Evidence drawn largely from household-spending data files as well as from household facility-ownership data and household net-worth data can shed additional light on the trend in inequality for Canada. Second, the paper will examine the issue of data reliability in the context of the measurement of inequality."

Source:
Fraser Institute "A free and prosperous world through choice, markets and responsibility"

< Begin 1st Fraser Institute Rant of 2009 >

I disagree fundamentally with the ideologically-driven libertarian views of the Fraser Institute with respect to poverty and social programs in Canada, and I don't generally link to their reports --- let them get their own soapbox, I say.
[The exception to this rule is the Fraser Institute's poverty line reports, which are the bible of the Absolute Poverty Measure supporters; you'll find links to those reports above.]

In this case, however, I decided to make an exception because of the last line in the Living Standards Highlights from the Institute of Wellbeing (above): "Canada became a much richer country, but it was the top 20% that received the lion’s share of rising income and wealth."
Hmmmm - let's see:
Former Saskatchewan NDP Premier Roy Romanow and the Institute of Wellbeing say that "[F]or economic families, the after-tax income of the top quintile, or fifth, of households, adjusted for family size, rose 39 per cent between 1981 and 2007, while the increases for the other quintiles were in the 20-25 per cent range", and that "an even more unequal pattern was observed for total and market income".

< /End 1st Fraser Institute Rant of 2009 >

Related links:

Defining and Re-Defining Poverty:
A CCSD Perspective
Position Paper
October 2001
"(...)All measures of poverty, whether they are based on income or a basket of goods and services, are also arbitrary, at least to some degree. It is really a matter of values how great a distance we are prepared to accept between the "poor" and the rest of society. The CCSD and most social welfare advocates support a relatively generous poverty line, because we recognize needs as social as well as physical. To be poor is to experience a significant degree of exclusion from the wider society, and not just to be deprived of very basic needs.
Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

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Learn more about the growing gap
between the rich and the poor
- incl. links to :
* Rags to Riches? * Why is the gap getting worse? * What about the rest of us? * What's happening to families in the middle? * One or two missed paycheques away... * Who is falling behind? * What can we do about the growing gap?

GrowingGap.ca -
GrowingGap.ca is a project of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Research & Publications
from the Inequality Project
The CCPA's Inequality Project is a national project with the aims of increasing public awareness about the alarming spread of income and wealth inequality in Canada.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

What is Poverty? Providing Clarity for Canada
By Chris Sarlo
May 7, 2008
Efforts to accurately measure and define poverty in Canada have been hindered by inconsistent and poor quality data, resulting in a confusing picture that is often further distorted by politicians and activists, according to a new study, What is Poverty? Providing Clarity for Canada, written by noted poverty researcher and Fraser Institute senior fellow Professor Chris Sarlo of Nipissing University.
Executive Summary
Complete report (PDF - 1.2MB, 24 pages)
Source:
The Fraser Institute

Counterpoint from
The Wellesley Institute:

Fraser Institute defines poverty out of existence...
May 8, 2008
By Michael Shapcott
There are two ways to reduce poverty: The best way is to get money into the hands of low-income people and adopt other practical and effective measures, such as affordable housing, education and training and so on. The other way is to define poverty out of existence by statistical sleight of hand: Tell the poor, and everyone else, that the poor aren’t really poor, and hope that they just go away. (...) Defining poverty rates so low that virtually no one in Canada could be called poor may make good ideological fodder, but in the real world that most people inhabit, Sarlo’s dollars just don’t make any sense.

-----------------

The Relativity of LICO (PDF file - 82K, 2 pages)
by Chris Sarlo
"A relative line, such as LICO, may be useful as a marker of what income is required to keep from falling behind the mainstream, but is not useful at all as a measure of what income people need to avoid being 'straitened.'"
Source:
November 2003 Fraser Forum
[ Fraser Institute ]

Poverty and the Federal Government (PDF file - 115K, 2 pages)
November 2002
by Chris Sarlo
"My own measure [of poverty] is one of so called “absolute poverty” and attempts to reveal serious material deprivation (hunger, inadequate housing, deprived living conditions)—not a lack of social comforts."
Source:
November 2002 Fraser Forum - Taming Media Myth

Related Links:
Read the Sarlo article above, then read an opposing viewpoint by David Ross, former Director of the Canadian Council on Social Development.
Rethinking Child Poverty - David Ross,summer 1999
Child Poverty in Canada: Recasting the Issue - David Ross, April 1998
"According to the Fraser [Institute] analysis, child poverty is really only a problem among those who live in families where incomes are so low that the parents cannot even afford adequate food and shelter (...) let me remind them that Canada is not a Third World country."
Source : Canadian Council on Social Development

The Adequacy of Welfare Benefits in Canada
by Joel Emes and Andrei Kreptul
April 1999
- Compares welfare benefits in 1998 by province with Christopher Sarlo's Basic Needs Lines. Includes information on earnings exemptions and special assistance, plus Pre-Tax Wage Equivalence charts explaining how much a working person would have to earn to end up with the same annual "net income" as an income assistance (IA) recipient.
Executive Summary
Complete Report (PDF file - 427K, 30 pages)

Fraser Institute proposes an alternative to the United Nations' Human Development Index
Media Release
24 October 2001
Canada ranks sixteenth on the Fraser Institute's Measuring Development: An Index of Human Progress, released today. This new publication provides a more complete view of the recent history and current state of development throughout the world than does the United Nations' often-quoted Human Development Index. The Fraser Institute's Index of Human Progress ranks the United States first, Switzerland second, Luxembourg third, Denmark fourth, and Japan fifth. Canada ranked sixteenth in 1999 out of 128 countries.
- Measuring Development: An Index of Human Progress (PDF file - 521K, 63 pages)

Related link:

Conference on Happiness
On December 1, 2010, CSLS and the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity are hosting a conference on happiness in Ottawa, Canada at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. This conference will take stock of our existing research on happiness and consider whether governments should have happiness as an objective for public policy and, if so, what policies they should adopt.
* Conference program (small PDF file)
* Registration information - incl. link to online registration + list of speakers

Source:
Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS)
The two main objectives of CSLS are to contribute to a better understanding of trends in living standards and factors determining trends through research and to contribute to public debate on living standards by developing and advocating specific policies through expert consensus.

----------

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New Estimates of Index of Economic Well-being for Canada and OECD Countries
December 3, 2009
On December 3, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) released updated estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security) for Canada and the provinces and for selected OECD countries. Both in Canada and across the OECD, economic well-being has increased over the past quarter century as a result of growing per-capita consumption and wealth. However, rising economic inequality and insecurity have dampened the growth of overall economic well-being. The Index of Economic Well-being is consistent with most of the recommendations of the recently released Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (the Stiglitz report) on what aspects of economic reality an index of economic well-being should capture.

The CSLS also released a third report addressing the measurement of economic security in the Index of Economic Well-being.

Measuring Economic Security in Insecure Times:
New Perspectives, New Events, and the Index of Economic Well-being (PDF - 870K)
December 2009

New Estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being
for Selected OECD Countries, 1980-2007 (PDF - 3.5MB)
(December 2009
Appendix Tables (PDF - 1.5MB)
Press release - December 3, 2009

New Estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being
for Canada and the Provinces, 1981-2008 (PDF - 3.2MB)
December 2009
Appendix Tables (PDF - 1.5MB)
Press release - December

Source:
CSLS Research Reports <=== links to dozens of reports back to 1997
[ Centre for the Study of Living Standards ]
The Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) was established in August 1995 to undertake research in the area of living standards. The two main objectives of CSLS are to contribute to a better understanding of trends in living standards and factors determining trends through research and to contribute to public debate on living standards by developing and advocating specific policies through expert consensus.

Brief to the Senate on Urban Child Poverty (2008) (PDF - 187K, 14 pages)
In February 2008, First Call Chair Michael Goldberg presented to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on the topic of urban child poverty. This briefing is an overview of topics including measuring poverty; child poverty rates; and the interaction between market income, social security benefits, taxation and statutory deductions, and income tested social programs.
Source:
First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
First Call is a coalition of individuals and organizations whose purpose is to create greater understanding of and advocacy for legislation, policy, and practice to ensure that all children and youth have the opportunities and resources required to achieve their full potential and to participate in the challenges of creating a better society.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

"(...) How many Canadians have a paying job? What levels of education do we have, and how does that compare with other countries? What proportion of marriages end in divorce? How long can we expect to live? Have there been any big changes over the last 20 years or so? This website helps to answer such questions. Developed by Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), its purpose is to systematically present measures and report on various aspects of well-being that are important to Canadians."

----------------------------------------------------

Poverty and Child Well-Being in Canada and the United States:
Does it Matter How We Measure Poverty?
Final Report
September 2000
Complete paper (PDF) (727K, 37 pages)

"In this paper we examine the robustness of conclusions about the association between poverty and children’s well-being to alternative choices about how we measure poverty. In particular, we focus upon the influence of data set chosen, sample selected and poverty line used"

Market Basket Measure (MBM)

In 1997, Canada's ministers responsible for social services mandated the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group on Social Development Research and Information to develop a new measure of low income in Canada to complement existing measures. The Applied Research Branch of Human Resources Development Canada developed the MBM in consultation with provincial and territorial governments.

Key MBM Documents from
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada:

First Comprehensive Review of the
Market Basket Measure of Low Income:
Final Report (PDF - 782K, 96 pages)
By Michael Hatfield, Wendy Pyper and Burton Gustajtis
June 2010
[Excerpt]
Following the release of the fourth report based on MBM data in December 2008 covering the years from 2000 to 2006 it was determined that sufficient experience with the original measure had been obtained to undertake the first comprehensive review of the measure during 2009 and early 2010. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) joined with Statistics Canada to carry out the review.

The purpose of the review is to ensure that the MBM, to the extent feasible, meets the following three criteria:
1) that the MBM “basket” continues to embody a modest* basic standard of living in the Canadian context of 2010;
2) that the cost of purchasing this standard of living in specific geographical regions within the ten Provinces is estimated as precisely as possible; and
3) that the measure takes into account as fully as possible the resources available to households to purchase the content of the ‘basket.”
_______________

* OMG - Someone better give Chris Sarlo and Stephen Harper a Valium:
===> "Internet access services" is included as part of a modest basket of goods since 2005!
_______________

More MBM report links from the
HRSDC Research/Publications page:
(Look under "Social and Economic Inclusion")
BTW - if you move your mouse over the "First Comprehensive..." link above, you'll note on your status bar (bottom-left corner of your monitor) that the PDF file is on the Canadian Social Research Links website and not the HRSDC website or the Statistics Canada website. That's because the web folks at HRSDC and StatCan are either too busy to upload the file to *their* web server, or else they all went on annual leave together. The link will appear on the HRSDC Publications page "soon"...

----------------------------------

Complementary reading:

Low income definitions
Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs)
--- Rebasing and Indexing the LICOs
--- Low income rate and low income gap
--- Use of after-tax and before-tax LICOs
Low Income Measures (LIMs)
Market Basket Measure (MBM)
Source:
Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics: 2008
(The "Low incomes definitions" above are found on the Notes and Definitions link off the main page of the
Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics or SLID)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Low Income in Canada: 2000-2007 Using the Market Basket Measure
August 2009
The Market Basket Measure (MBM) is a measure of low income based on the cost of a specified basket of goods and services. It was designed to complement two Statistics Canada measures of low income: the Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs) based on average consumption patterns and the Low Income Measure (LIM) based on median incomes. The MBM is far more sensitive to geographical differences in living costs than these other measures.

- includes links to the individual chapters and appendices; the table of contents appears below.
- also includes links to a Highlights page and the full text in one PDF file (both of these links appear below)

Table of Contents:
* 1. Introduction
* 2. Low Income Measures: Conceptual Differences
* 3. The Market Basket Measure
* 4. The Results
* 5. A Focus on the "Working Poor"
* 6. High Risk Groups
* 7. Conclusion
* 8. Introduction to Tables 7-10
* Appendix A - Methodological Annex
* Appendix B - Health Canada's National Nutritious Food Basket - 1998
* Appendix C - Revised Clothing and Footwear component (2005) based on January 2001 Social Planning Council of Winnipeg and Winnipeg Harvest Acceptable Level of Living (A.L.L)
* Appendix D - Percentage of Rental Units in which Various Appliances are included in the Rent, Labour Force Survey (LFS) Rent Supplement, Average of June to December 2000
* Appendix E - Cities in which transportation items are collected 1
* Appendix F - Survey of Household Spending (SHS) Items Included in Other Expenses Calculation: Numerator
* Appendix G - MBM Thresholds for Reference Family by Component 2007($)

Complete report (PDF - 458K, 89 pages)

Highlights
(Excerpts)
* The national incidence of low income fell from 14.6% in 2000 to 10.1% in 2007.
* This decline in incidence was widespread across all age groups with children under 18 experiencing the largest decline since 2000 (6.2 percentage points to 11.9% in 2007).
* Among age groups, the incidence among seniors was the lowest; falling from 5.5% in 2000 to 2.6% in 2007.
* The national incidence of low income in 2007 was higher using the MBM (10.1%) than Statistics Canada's post-income tax Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs-IAT) (9.2%).1 This pattern was repeated for most sub-groups.

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Related links:

ActNow BC initiative (BC Govt.)
ActNow BC was introduced in early 2005 to encourage British Columbians to make healthy lifestyle choices to improve their quality of life, reduce the incidence of preventable chronic disease, and reduce the burden on the health care system. ActNow BC is an integrated, government-wide approach that engages the contributions of partners in other levels of government (e.g., municipalities), non-government organizations, schools, communities, and the private sector to develop and deliver programs and services to assist individuals to quit or never start smoking, to be more physically active, eat healthier foods, achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and make healthy choices in pregnancy.

---

From BC Stats:

An interactive version of the Canadian Community Health Survey
(2005, 2007 and 2008) wellness indicators and socio-economic census variables (2006):

* Mapping and Geography

* Atlas of Wellness

---

From the
Vancouver Sun:

Wellness atlas looks into what makes a healthy life in B.C.
By Craig McInnes
January 10, 2008
(...) Now geographers at the University of Victoria have published an atlas of the province that looks at more than 100 indicators they relate to wellness. The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness by Leslie Foster, a former senior public servant with the provincial government and an adjunct professor at UVic, Peter Keller, the dean of social sciences, and a baker's dozen of other contributors includes obvious topics such as smoking, healthy eating and exercise. But it also includes dozens of other factors that speak to a more sophisticated definition of what goes into supporting a healthy life. They look at family structure, employment rates, the availability of emotional support, graduation rates and whether students feel safe at school.They look at access to playing fields, whether babies are breast fed, weight, the ephemeral question of whether people are satisfied with their lives and even hours of sunshine..."

**********************************

Related links:

Health
List of Topics:
* Health Behaviours * Non-medical Determinants of Health * Health Resources * Rural Health * Health Services Utilization * Health Status
Source:
Atlas of Canada (Govt. of Canada)

Québec:

Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion (CEPE) - Québec
The Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion (CEPE) is an observation, research and discussion centre entrusted with providing reliable and rigourous information, notably of a statistical nature, on poverty and social exclusion issues. The CEPE was created in the spirit of the Act to combat poverty and social exclusion in spring 2005 under the aegis of the ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS).

Selected site content:

Equivalence scales: an Empirical Validation (PDF, 178 KB, 23 pages)
By Fréchet, Guy, Pierre Lanctôt, Alexandre Morin and Frédéric Savard
September 2010
In its brief to the minister entitled Taking the Measure of Poverty: Proposed Indicators of Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion to Measure Progress in Québec, the Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion (CEPE) formulated numerous recommendations with respect to poverty indicators, inequality and exclusion. The fourth such recommendation concerns equivalence scales, which are tools that make it possible to adjust the various low income thresholds based on household size. These scales take into account economies of scale within a household and also presuppose a more or less equivalent level of well being. The recommendation reads as follows: “The Centre recommends using Statistics Canada’s 40/30 equivalence scale to account for economies of scale” (CEPE, 2009, p. 33). (...) Our working paper offers an empirical validation that will make it possible to understand the implications of choosing one of the scales, in this case the Statistics Canada scale.

----

From after-tax income to market basket measure (MBM) disposable income (PDF, 80 KB, 8 pages)
By Guy Fréchet, Pierre Lanctôt and Alexandre Morin (2010)
September 2010
Comparisons of various low income thresholds are carried out using bases that are not entirely comparable: low income cut-offs (LICOs) and the low income measure (LIM) are based on before- or after-tax income (but before social contributions), whereas the market basket measure (MBM) is based on the cost of a market basket in a community of residence and disposable income for purposes of consumption (after taxes and social contributions). This begs the following question: How high must the average after-tax income of a given household be in order for it to have the means to acquire the basket in question, given that the cost of the basket must correspond to an equivalent income? The purpose of this working paper is to provide a detailed justification for a proposed 7% upward adjustment in the market basket measure (MBM) as a means of rendering the thresholds comparable to an after-tax income.

---

NOTE: The following report is available in French only, but an excerpt from the abstract in English is copied below.

Les déterminants macroéconomiques de la pauvreté : Une étude
de l’incidence de la pauvreté au sein des familles québécoises
sur la période 1976-2006 (PDF - 147Ko, 41 pages)
Jean-Michel Cousineau
Août 2009
École de relations industrielles
Université de Montréal
Abstract [Excerpt]:
One of the most extraordinary change that affected Canada and Québec in the recent decenny is the dramatic decrease in their poverty rates. This paper estimates the contribution of the macroeconomic determinants of poverty for economic families in Québec and Canada. Such a study may help to understand year to year changes in poverty rates as well as the respective role of markets and governments over various sub-periods of our sample (1976-1989; 1989-1996 and lastly : 1996-2006).

---

Taking the Measure of Poverty, Proposed indicators of poverty,
inequality and social exclusion to measure progress in Québec:
Advice to the Minister (PDF - 311K, 80 pages)
Centre for the study of poverty and exclusion
2009 (file dated September 21/09)
------------------------
version française :
Prendre la mesure de la pauvreté, Proposition d’indicateurs de pauvreté,
d’inégalités et d’exclusion sociale afin de mesurer les progrès réalisés au Québec
Avis au ministre (fichier PDF - 668 Ko., 71 pages)
Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion
2009
------------------------
One of the mandates of the Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion is to propose, to the minister of Emploi et Solidarité sociale, measures and indicators of poverty, inequality and social exclusion to measure progress in Québec in the implementation of the Act to combat poverty and social exclusion. This advice is a first proposition in that direction.
[ more reports by CEPE ]
Source:
Centre d’étude sur la pauvreté et l’exclusion

-------------------------------------------------

Institut de la statistique du Québec:
The mission of the Institut de la statistique du Québec is to provide reliable, relevant and objective statistical information on the socioeconomic evolution of Québec. It is also responsible for conducting statistical surveys of general interest. Thus, the Institut, via the production of quality statistics supporting the public debate, plays a preponderant role in Québec society.

Selected site content:

Annuaire de statistiques sur
l’inégalité de revenu et le faible revenu, édition 2008 (PDF - 1.4MB, 190 pages)
[ annual statistics on income inequality and low income in Quebec, Ontario and Canada ]
December 2008
---
NOTE: this report is available in French only.
Read the abstract below to get a sense of the content of this report, and then click the link above and use Google Language Tools to translate the text and tables for you.
---
Abstract:
The income inequality and low income of families and individuals are themes for which statistical information is necessary for society in general, and, in particular, for public policy makers. In fact, it is essential to observe the economic situation of the population in order to make social policies capable of reducing inequality and improving the fate of those less fortunate. To this end, this publication mainly presents a collection of some one hundred detailed tables, and provides figures on the historical evolution of the indicators commonly used to measure income inequality and low income. The statistics in these tables are based on different units of analysis (family units or persons) and on various income concepts (after-tax income, market income or total income). Their universes are defined geographically (Québec, the provinces and Canada, the administrative regions and the regional county municipalities of Québec) and sociodemographically (age, sex, education level, labour market participation, main source of income and family type). The publication includes an analysis that shows the evolution of the indicators since the last three decades and a guide on the concepts and methods used.

Table of contents (unofficial translation):
Chapter 1 - Analysis (income inequality, low income) [incl. comparison of Quebec, Ontario and Canada]
Chapter 2 - Data, definitions and methodological notes [incl. info about indicators of inequality and low income used in Quebec, Ontario and Canada]
Chapter 3 - Detailed tables on income inequality (35 tables) and low income (58 tables)
[Click the "Annuaire" link above to access the complete report.]

Source:
Living Conditions and Well-being
- includes links to English descriptions of over two dozen reports (all in French only, but some with English highlights pages) filed under the following categories:
* Literacy * Inequality and Poverty * Day care * The Elderly * Social Data * Social Portrait * Spousal violence * Family violence
[ Publications by statistical sector ]
[ Institut de la statistique du Québec:
The mission of the Institut de la statistique du Québec is to provide reliable, relevant and objective statistical information on the socioeconomic evolution of Québec. It is also responsible for conducting statistical surveys of general interest. Thus, the Institut, via the production of quality statistics supporting the public debate, plays a preponderant role in Québec society. ]

Is Child Poverty Up or Down?
January 2007
The Tyee [an independent alternative daily newspaper in BC] has an interesting article, Child Poverty is Down. No, it's Up, about two reports issued in the last couple months about child poverty. One report issued by the Fraser Institute claims that less than six per cent of Canadian children live in poverty; the other report issued by Campaign 2000 said the poverty rate for Canadian children was more than three times that, over 17 per cent. The Fraser Institute and Campaign 2000 define poverty very differently. The Fraser Institute includes the cost of only subsistence levels of food, clothing, housing and a few other necessities, while Campaign 2000 uses Stats Canada low income cutoffs below which families would find themselves living in "straitened circumstances."
Source of this commentary
and these links:
PovNet

Poverty in Canada — Resources
Poverty in Canada: News & Selected Reports

Recommended reading!

Source:
Intraspec.ca
"Intraspec.ca presents readings, writings and research on selected subjects, including AIDS reversal, astrology, blood-type diets, Enneagram, finding a doctor, homelessness and poverty in Canada (bolding added), influenza, job search, legal aid, medical marijuana, memes, personality types, Nordic Walking, nutrition, Ottawa walk-in clinics, and more." [excerpt from the site index]

New publication groups together poverty indicators
Press Release
November 10, 2005
"The Institut de la statistique du Québec presents, in collaboration with the ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, the Inventaire des indicateurs de pauvreté et d'exclusion sociale. This publication inventories the various indicators that define and measure poverty. (...) Over 67 indicators and indices have been listed in three chapters: 32 of them are poverty and social exclusion indicators, 29 are related to poverty and social exclusion, and 6 are social development indices. The inventory has two objectives: first, to cover all aspects of poverty and the various angles from which it can be examined. It also aims at opening new avenues by presenting not only the indicators that have already been calculated for Québec, but also those that are used elsewhere (elsewhere in Canada, Europe, the United States and Australia) and which could be used in future compilations with a view to broadening the range of statistics available. Among the poverty and social exclusion indicators are various measures of poverty defined as insufficiency of income and its consequences."

NOTE: the complete report is available only in French,
but you can use the Google Language Tool to translate words, paragraphs or even entire pages of text. Try it!!

Complete report:

Inventaire des indicateurs de pauvreté et d'exclusion sociale (464K, 95 pages)
November 10, 2005
Table of Contents (my translation):
Chapter 1 - Indicators of poverty and social exclusion: Measures (covering 14 different indicators) - Depth of poverty - Persistence of poverty - Links with governmental transfers - Inequality - Living conditions
Chapter 2 - Indicators related to poverty and social exclusion: Family wealth and income - Household expenses - Employment - Food security - Housing - Health - Education
Chapter 3 - Social development indices
- includes eight tables showing various low income thresholds for Quebec, Canada and the U.S.

Source:
Institut de la statistique du Québec (English Home Page)

Consumption Poverty in Canada 1969 to 1998 - PDF file - 256K, 37 pages
Krishna Pendakur
Economics, Simon Fraser University

C.D. Howe Institute
Since its formation in 1973, the C.D. Howe Institute has earned a reputation as Canada's most respected independent, nonprofit economic and social policy research institution.

Perceptions of Poverty: Correcting Misconceptions about the Low-Income Cutoff (PDF, 6 pages)
Backgrounder
April 2000

Selected Publications on Income and Well-Being by Lars Osberg*
*McCulloch Professor of Economics , Dalhousie University

Links to a large collection of full-text reports, articles and studies on income and well-being by Prof. Osberg (some with co-authors) - includes publication details and abstracts for every document
Sample content:

An Index of Labour Market Well-being for OECD Countries (with Andrew Sharpe)
Human Well Being and Economic Well Being: What Values Are Implicit in Current Indices?
Inequality
Time, Money and Inequality in International Perspective
Trends in Poverty: The UK in International Perspective - How Rates Mislead and Intensity Matters
Needs and Wants - What is Social Progress and How Should it be Measured?
Poverty Among Senior Citizens: A Canadian Success Story in International Perspective
Poverty in Canada and the USA: Measurement, Trends and Implications (CEA Presidential Address - revised 6/7/00)
Poverty Trends and the Canadian "Social Union"
Publication Details Abstract Download PDF
International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity - with Kuan Xu (JHR version)
Poverty Durations and Poverty Measurement - with Kuan Xu (CEA Conference version - comments welcome)
Poverty Intensity - How Well Do Canadian Provinces Compare? with Kuan Xu
Sustainable Social Development
Economic Insecurity
...and many, many more.

Quality of Life Research Unit (University of Toronto)
The Quality of Life Research Unit is one of several research units within the Centre for Health Promotion in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Our purpose is to carry out quality of life research that relates to communities, families, and individuals from a variety of population groups.

Quality of Life Research Projects
Great collection of links - includes Seniors' Participatory Project - Inequality and Health Quality of Life Profile - Quality of Life of People With Developmental Disabilities (A four year longitudinal study) - The Family Quality of Life Project - Quality of Life of Seniors - Quality of Life of Adolescents - The Childrens' Quality of Life Project - Community Quality of Life - Quality of Life of Persons with Physical and Sensory Disabilities
Related Links - see The Social Indicators Launchpad from the Canadian Council on Social Development

Acceptable Living Level 2003 - January 2004 (PDF file, 391K, 82 pages)
"The 2003 Acceptable Living Level Report represents a continued effort to inform and educate the public on the realities of poverty in Manitoba. It seeks to address and abolish the myths and stereotypes of poverty by providing an honest analysis of poverty in Manitoba. The primary goal of the report is to determine an adequate and disposable income or expenditure level on a market basket of goods and services that can sustain a fair, modest and acceptable
living level. This report asks “how much is too little” rather than “how much is too much.” We believe that every Manitoban has the right to an acceptable living level. The Acceptable Living Level Report originated as a challenge to devise a “better” measure of poverty for Winnipeg. The first A.L.L. Report was released in 1997 by Winnipeg Harvest and the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.
Source:
Social Planning Council of Winnipeg

[ Acceptable Living Level 2000 (PDF)

For links to resources on poverty measures in the U.S and elsewhere in the world,,
go to the Canadian Social Research Links International Poverty Measures page

For links to social program statistics for Canada and other countries,
go to the Canadian Social Research Links Social Statistics page

For info on asset-based approaches to social policy,
see the Canadian Social Research Links Asset-Based Social Policies Links page

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Try it. It's a great time-saver!

Site created and maintained by:
Gilles Séguin (This link takes you to my personal page)

E-MAIL: gilseg@rogers.com

Poverty Measures Canadian Resources

Mesures de pauvreté : ressources canadiennes

Poverty Measures
Canadian Resources

Mesures de pauvreté :
ressources canadiennes