Poverty Measures Canadian Resources

Mesures de pauvreté : ressources canadiennes

Updated June 14, 2009
Page révisée le 14 juin 2009

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[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

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On this page you'll find links to Canadian resources on the subject of poverty measures.
For links to American and other international poverty measures, go to the Canadian Social Research Links Poverty Measures - International resources page
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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

First Report of the Institute of Wellbeing (PDF - 4.4MB, 41 pages)
June 2009
If you’ve ever wondered how Canadians are REALLY doing, you’re in the right place. This newly released report shows that: even in good economic times the lion’s share of benefits go to the wealthy while the poor stay poor and the shrinking middle class muddles through; Canadians are living longer but not healthier – health among teenagers is especially worrying; but crime is down and social relationships in our communities are stronger. The report also shows that cuts or lack of improvements to government programs like welfare, Employment Insurance and publicly funded medical services are hurting Canadians.

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing will track changes in eight quality of life categories or “domains”.
The following are available online as of June 10, 2009:
* Living Standards - measures the level and distribution of income and wealth, poverty rates, income volatility, and economic security, including the security of jobs, food, housing and the social safety net.
* Healthy Populations - measures the physical and mental wellbeing of the population, life expectancy, behaviours and life circumstances that influence health, health care quality and access, and public health services.
* Community Vitality - measures the strength, activity and inclusiveness of relationships among residents, private sector, public sector and voluntary organizations.
[ Click each of the links above to access an in-depth analytical report, an executive summary, highlights and tables and graphs.]
Reports on the findings from the other five domains will be released as the research is completed over the next year.

Source:
Institute of Wellbeing
The Institute is independent, non-partisan, with a newly forming affiliation with the University of Waterloo, and operates under the leadership of an advisory board of accomplished Canadians and international experts. Its mission is to report on the quality of life 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.

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Two related links
from The Toronto Star:

There's more to life than GDP
Canadians need a new, holistic measure of societal progress that goes beyond economics
June 10, 2009
By Roy Romanow
[ Former Saskatchewan Premier and founding chair of the Institute of Wellbeing. ]
For many years – and particularly since the onset of the global recession – Canadians and people around the world have been bombarded with news about the gross domestic product. Numbers have been issued and then updated. Predictions have been made and then revised. So powerful and predominant has GDP become, that the New York Times referred to it as "a celebrity among statistics, a giant calculator strutting about adding up every bit of paid activity..." But what is GDP? What does it tell us about how well or poorly we are doing as a society? More important, what does it leave out? And what are the consequences of this omission?
(...)
Today is the launch of the Institute of Wellbeing and the introduction of its signature project, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). The institute is independent, non-partisan and guided by an advisory board of Canadian and international experts. (...) Today the institute released its first report, summarizing research findings in the three areas of Living Standards, Healthy Populations and Community Vitality. We noted that during so-called economic good times, Canadian workers failed to reap their share of the benefits of productivity growth, with hourly wages rising at only half of the rate of GDP. (...) The CIW will connect the dots between public policy decisions and Canadians' quality of life. It will promote a new understanding of wellbeing and a dialogue that reshapes the way we talk about wellbeing and public policy issues. It will encourage policy-makers to make evidence-based decisions that respond to the values and needs of Canadians. In that respect, it will be a true nation-building project.

Coming soon: Good-life index
Experts develop measure that looks beyond GDP to gauge quality of life and spur policy change
June 10, 2009
By Kenneth Kidd
"(...) 'GDP measures everything but the quality of life', notes Roy Romanow, chair of the Institute of Wellbeing, which is busy creating a more balanced and exhaustive method of measuring the quality of life Canadians enjoy. 'What we want to do is elevate, at a Canadian level, a measuring tool which is easily seen and understood by the public in order to put pressure, to be blunt about it, on governments,' says Romanow. The push to create an alternative gauge that includes health and social measures as well as economic ones began about a decade ago, but has gathered steam in recent years under the auspices of the Institute of Wellbeing. Dozens of academics and policy-makers, partly funded by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, are now working on various elements of a Canadian Index of Wellbeing, or CIW. The CIW will be a composite index aggregating results from eight areas, with reports to be released today on three of them: living standards, healthy populations and community vitality.

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Sample report on Living Standards:

Living Standards report (PDF - 1.9MB, 134 pages)
By Andrew Sharpe and Jean François Arsenault
June 2009
The report is divided into four major parts. Part one examines trends in average and median income and wealth indicators in Canada. Part two looks at the distribution of the income and wealth of Canadians over time, including trends in poverty. Part three discusses trends in income fluctuations or volatility. Part four analyzes trends in the economic security of Canadians, including labour market security, food security, housing security, and the security provided by the social safety net.

Excerpt from
Highlights - Living Standards (PDF - 773K, 8 pages):
An examination of data covering 1981-2008 revealed the following trends regarding the evolution of living standards in Canada:
* Canadians were on average better off in terms of income and wealth.
* But, income and wealth inequality increased.
* Labour productivity growth exceeded real wage growth.
* Little progress was made in reducing poverty.
* There was an overall improvement in labour market conditions.
* The social safety net continued to fray, providing less support for the disadvantaged.
* Overall, Canada became a much richer country, but it was the top 20% that received the lion’s share of rising income and wealth.

More site content from the Institute of Wellbeing - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading

Overviews of poverty measurement in Canada:

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

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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

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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.

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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 News In Depth

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

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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

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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

<begin rant.>

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.
Department of Social Development Act - (see the link under Part I to "National Council of Welfare")
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 from 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

<end rant.>

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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 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. 

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Measuring child benefits: Measuring child poverty (PDF file - 270K, 73 pages)
February 2005
By Michael Mendelson
"This report addresses two critical questions in social policy: what is child poverty and how much is an adequate child benefit? To answer these questions, the report provides an analytic basis to distinguish between poverty among families with children and that element of their poverty that is properly understood as ‘child poverty.’ It argues that child benefits should cover the incremental cost of raising a child in a family living just above poverty levels. But to estimate an adequate child benefit, we must then define ‘poverty.’ Building upon a critical review of Canadian and international research, the report describes two alternative methodologies that could be adopted to develop a well-grounded Canadian poverty line. The report provides a number of preliminary quantitative estimates of the value of an adequate child benefit according to these methodologies. This report will challenge your understanding of ‘child poverty,’ how it should be measured and the role of child benefits in addressing it."
Source:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy

A Lost Decade: Income Equality and the Health of Canadians
December 2, 2002
Presentation by Katherine Scott, Senior Policy and Research Associate, at the Social Determinants of Health Conference in Toronto
Source : Canadian Council on Social Development

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.

THE CANADIAN INDEX OF WELLBEING

Institute of Wellbeing
The Institute is independent, non-partisan, with a newly forming affiliation with the University of Waterloo, and operates under the leadership of an advisory board of accomplished Canadians and international experts. Its mission is to report on the quality of life 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.

First Report of the Institute of Wellbeing (PDF - 4.4MB, 41 pages)
June 2009
If you’ve ever wondered how Canadians are REALLY doing, you’re in the right place. This newly released report shows that: even in good economic times the lion’s share of benefits go to the wealthy while the poor stay poor and the shrinking middle class muddles through; Canadians are living longer but not healthier – health among teenagers is especially worrying; but crime is down and social relationships in our communities are stronger. The report also shows that cuts or lack of improvements to government programs like welfare, Employment Insurance and publicly funded medical services are hurting Canadians.

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing will track changes in eight quality of life categories or “domains”.
The following are available online as of June 10, 2009:
* Living Standards - measures the level and distribution of income and wealth, poverty rates, income volatility, and economic security, including the security of jobs, food, housing and the social safety net.
* Healthy Populations - measures the physical and mental wellbeing of the population, life expectancy, behaviours and life circumstances that influence health, health care quality and access, and public health services.
* Community Vitality - measures the strength, activity and inclusiveness of relationships among residents, private sector, public sector and voluntary organizations.
[ Click each of the links above to access an in-depth analytical report, an executive summary, highlights and tables and graphs.]
Reports on the findings from the other five domains will be released as the research is completed over the next year.

---

Two related links
from The Toronto Star:

There's more to life than GDP
Canadians need a new, holistic measure of societal progress that goes beyond economics
June 10, 2009
By Roy Romanow
[ Former Saskatchewan Premier and founding chair of the Institute of Wellbeing. ]
For many years – and particularly since the onset of the global recession – Canadians and people around the world have been bombarded with news about the gross domestic product. Numbers have been issued and then updated. Predictions have been made and then revised. So powerful and predominant has GDP become, that the New York Times referred to it as "a celebrity among statistics, a giant calculator strutting about adding up every bit of paid activity..." But what is GDP? What does it tell us about how well or poorly we are doing as a society? More important, what does it leave out? And what are the consequences of this omission?
(...)
Today is the launch of the Institute of Wellbeing and the introduction of its signature project, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). The institute is independent, non-partisan and guided by an advisory board of Canadian and international experts. (...) Today the institute released its first report, summarizing research findings in the three areas of Living Standards, Healthy Populations and Community Vitality. We noted that during so-called economic good times, Canadian workers failed to reap their share of the benefits of productivity growth, with hourly wages rising at only half of the rate of GDP. (...) The CIW will connect the dots between public policy decisions and Canadians' quality of life. It will promote a new understanding of wellbeing and a dialogue that reshapes the way we talk about wellbeing and public policy issues. It will encourage policy-makers to make evidence-based decisions that respond to the values and needs of Canadians. In that respect, it will be a true nation-building project.

Coming soon: Good-life index
Experts develop measure that looks beyond GDP to gauge quality of life and spur policy change
June 10, 2009
By Kenneth Kidd
"(...) 'GDP measures everything but the quality of life', notes Roy Romanow, chair of the Institute of Wellbeing, which is busy creating a more balanced and exhaustive method of measuring the quality of life Canadians enjoy. 'What we want to do is elevate, at a Canadian level, a measuring tool which is easily seen and understood by the public in order to put pressure, to be blunt about it, on governments,' says Romanow. The push to create an alternative gauge that includes health and social measures as well as economic ones began about a decade ago, but has gathered steam in recent years under the auspices of the Institute of Wellbeing. Dozens of academics and policy-makers, partly funded by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, are now working on various elements of a Canadian Index of Wellbeing, or CIW. The CIW will be a composite index aggregating results from eight areas, with reports to be released today on three of them: living standards, healthy populations and community vitality.

Measuring the Progress of Societies Newsletter (PDF - 929K, 10 pages)
March 2008
Source:
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development

Istanbul World Forum - Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies
June 27-30, Istanbul, Turkey

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A richer way of measuring wealth:
New well-being index would complement traditional GDP - February 19, 2007
The Canadian Index of Well-being (CIW)

Source:
War on Poverty - from The Toronto Star
- ongoing series of articles and editorials about the plight of Canada's needy and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them.

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)

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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.

February 12, 2007
Purchasing power parities, 1992 to 2005
Understanding relative price differences is important for cross-country comparisons of productivity, economic performance and living standards. Purchasing power parities are useful in this context as they provide estimates of relative purchasing power between two or more economies. In Canada's case, such comparisons are most important with the United States. This report, "Purchasing power parities and real expenditures, United States and Canada, 1992 to 2005," updates the Canada/US bilateral study published in 2002. It provides the latest estimates of purchasing power parities, associated real expenditures and other related estimates for the United States relative to Canada for the period from 1992 to 2005.

Complete report:

Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures,
United States and Canada, 1992 to 2005 (PDF file - 248K, 40 pages)
by James Temple
February 2007

April 6, 2006
Study: Low wage and low income, 1993 to 2004
Fewer Canadians slipped into low income in 2004, while more were able to climb out, according to a new study that analyzes the economic well-being of Canadians exposed to low income and low wages. Using new income data for 2004, the study showed that only 3.3% of Canadians who were not living below Statistics Canada's low-income cutoff (LICO) in 2003 had slipped into low income in 2004.

Low Wage and Low Income (PDF file - 368K, 12 pages)
April 2006
by Income Statistics Division
This report examines the transitions into and out of low income and the persistence of low income among Canadians. It also examines the incidence of low wage among full-time workers and the extent to which low wage workers live in low income families.

Source:
Income research paper series - links to 150+ studies going back to 1993

February 10, 2005
Study: Trends in income inequality in Canada from an international perspective
Income inequality in Canada is higher than in Europe but lower than in the United States, according to a new report that summarizes the findings of recent studies that have examined family income inequality and low income.

Complete report:
Income Inequality and Low Income in Canada: An International Perspective (PDF file - 841K, 31 pages)
February 2005
by Garnett Picot and John Myles
[ link to 150+ papers in the Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series ]

February 1, 2005
Health Indicators
This new issue of Health Indicators, an Internet-based data publication, features updated health region level data and maps based on the most recent vital and cancer statistics available. Updates include: life expectancy, infant mortality, low-birth weight, and mortality rates by selected causes. Even though Canada has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, today's release of Health Indicators demonstrates that life expectancy varies widely between health regions. People living in Northern and remote regions of Canada, many of whom are Aboriginal, have life expectancies more in line with developing countries than with other Canadians.

Complete report:

Health Indicators vol. 2005, no. 1
- includes profiles and data tables on : Health status - Non-medical determinants of health - Health system performance - Community and health system characteristics

2004 Poverty Lines
May 5, 2005
"The LICOs are published by Statistics Canada. Persons and families living below these income levels are considered to be living in "straitened circumstances." There are 35 different LICOs, varying according to family size and size of community. The LICOs are more popularly known as Canada's poverty lines."
Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

Related Links from Statistics Canada:

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

Purchasing power parities 1992 to 2001
June 28, 2002
"Interest remains high in the value of the Canadian dollar compared with its US counterpart and in the comparative levels of output between the two countries. Released today are updated results for bilateral US-Canada purchasing power parities (PPPs) and real expenditures covering the years 1992 to 2001."
Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures, United States and Canada 1992-2001(PDF file - 743K, 48 pages)
[NOTE: the link to the PDF file wasn't working on June 6, 2004 - try doing a search on the StatCan site for the publication title]
Source : The Daily

Related Link :

Purchasing power parity: A Canada/US exploration
May 30, 2002
"Are Canadians paying more than Americans for the goods and services they purchase?
How have Canada-US free trade agreements affected the purchasing power of Canadian consumers relative to their American counterparts?"
- cross-country comparison of living standards based on a study that explores relative prices, adjusted by the exchange rate, on more than 168 commodities over four years (1985, 1990, 1993, 1996)
Abstract
Complete report (PDF file - 278K, 46 pages)
Source:
The Daily

Family Income, 1999
November 6, 2001
For the second consecutive year, average family income reached a new high in 1999, as the income of Canadians continued to rebound from the recession of the early 1990s. Average after-tax family income reached an estimated $51,473, up 1.9% from 1998.
The link above takes you to a seven-page summary of the study and a link to a page where you can purchase the complete report online.

Recent Developments in the Low Income Cutoffs (PDF file - 983K, 27 pages)
Statistics Canada
July 2001

- Go to StatCan's Income Research Paper series - over 100 papers on income measurement in Canada from 1993 to 2004 - FREE!

Income inequality in Canada and the United States 1974-1997
July 28, 2000
The Daily
Statistics Canada
The study [of income inequality] rejected a theory that increasing economic integration has lead to greater similarity in patterns of income distribution in the two countries. Rather, the results suggested a widespread difference in overall income distribution in both Canada and the United States. If anything, the differences appeared to be widening, at least up to 1997.

Income trends in Canada (1980-1997) - User's guide (January 2000)
(PDF file, 318K, 39 pages)

Should the Low Income Cutoffs be updated? A Discussion Paper (PDF file, 274K - 38 pages)
December 1999

Low income measures (LIM), low income after tax cut-offs (LICO- IAT) and low income after tax measures (LIM-IAT) (PDF file, 200K - 33 pages)
August 1999
"This report contains three alternate sets (1980 to present) of historical low income lines to the traditional 'Low income cut-offs' (LICOs). The first set, 'Low income measures' (LIMs), are set at one-half median adjusted family before-tax income, where 'adjusted' indicates a consideration of different needs for families of varying size. The second and third sets are lines on an after-tax basis, using the LICO and LIM methodologies."

Measuring Low Income and Poverty in Canada : an Update  (PDF file, 88K - 19 pages)
May 1998

The Growth of Earnings Inequality in Canada (PDF file, 198K - 51 pages)
September 1996

Statistics Canada Research Papers - Income Series

NOTE: For more Statistics Canada links, go to the StatsCan section of the Federal Government Links II page of this site

Fraser Institute
"Competitive Market Solutions for Public Policy Problems"

Editorial Comment 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. On the issue of poverty measurement, for example, the 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. This is not because another "leftie" from my mailing list criticized me back then for giving the Institute's material too much prominence. I feel strongly that it's important for both sides to have all the facts. My decision to focus more on the counterpoint arguments (in favour of a relative approach to measuring poverty) is based on my subjective 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).

 

Are Welfare Rates Too Low? (PDF file - 109K, 2 pages) 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. Here's a link to the Welfare Incomes 2002 fact sheet where you can find the estimated income figures used in the Fraser article: http://www.ncwcnbes.net/en/publications/pub-119.html 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 on the Canadian Social Research Links Poverty Measures page

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 >

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:

Human Development Reports - from the U.N.

Fraser Forum (selected articles about poverty)
NOTE : Since the site redesign in March 2002, you can only access the latest issues of Fraser Forum from the Fraser home Page. If you want to find the articles below, you'll have to do a publications search on the new site.

- October Questions & Answers and October Graph : What is Canada’s poverty line and how is it measured? (October 2001) - Time Reveals the Truth about Low Income (September 2001) - Measuring Poverty (September 2001) - Popular Myths About Poverty - (July 2001) - What is Best For Children? (June 2001) - Defining True Poverty (March 2001) - Child Poverty & Child Hunger (December 2000) - How Important is the Poverty Issue? (July 2000) - Polls and Poverty (June 2000) - Funny Data (April 2000)

- A Poor Trick (March 2000) - Social Activists and Poverty (February 2000) - Let’s Get Real! (November 1999) - Measuring Child Poverty (October 1999) - CBC4Kids Gives a Poor Primer on Poverty (October 1999) - The Problem of Homelessness (June 1999) - Poorest of the Poor Part II (April 1999) - Misconceptions about “Basic Needs” Poverty Lines (February 1999) - The Market-Basket Approach to Measuring Poverty (October 1998) - Defining Poverty  (May 1998) - The Problems with LICO (June 1998) - The Myth of Child Poverty (October 1997)

Canada Revenue Agency

Income Statistics

"The annual Income Statistics reports -- formerly called Taxation Statistics -- use tables of data to create a profile of Canadian taxpayers. The reports use data from personal tax returns filed two years earlier. For example, the 2002 edition analyzes returns from the 2000 tax year, which had to be filed by the end of April 2001.
As many clients have requested, we publish two separate reports:
Final Statistics - Sample Data: Produced since the 1940s, this report presents detailed profiles of Canadian taxfilers based on a stratified random sample of individual tax returns. This report contains Tables 1 to 12, which is the complete series.
Interim Statistics - Universe Data: This report contains preliminary statistics based on the universe of all returns filed and processed during a given tax year."

Canadian Council on Social Development
The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is one of Canada's most authoritative voices promoting better social and economic security for all Canadians. A national, self-supporting, non-profit organization, the CCSD's main product is information and its main activity is research, focussing on concerns such as income security, employment, poverty, child welfare, pensions and government social policies.

Poverty Lines - last updated: June 20, 2006
Before-Tax Low-Income Cut-Offs (LICOs), 2005
The LICOs are published by Statistics Canada. Persons and families living below these income levels are considered to be living in "straitened circumstances." There are 35 different LICOs, varying according to family size and size of community. The LICOs are more popularly known as Canada's poverty lines.

Free Statistics --- 65+ tables!
Canadian (current and historical) poverty lines
- includes several texts explaining how poverty lines work, before- and after-tax poverty lines, welfare incomes as a percentage of the poverty line, etc.
Poverty Statistics
- historical poverty rates, including specific populations - the elderly, children (national and provincial-territorial breakdowns), urban poor, Aboriginal children - plus a 1998 presentation by David Ross (former CCSD Executive Director) on different outcomes for high- and low-income children, perceptions of poverty over time and much more

Welfare
- Canadian welfare rates (benefit levels), caseload statistics by province and territory, etc.
Income
- Census shows growing polarization of income in Canada - average incomes by family type, Canada, 1991 and 1996 - average and median family incomes by province - income distribution and the precarious middle class, distribution of income by quintiles, etc.
Miscellaneous
- incl. "25 Indicators of social development - Canada, the US, Sweden" - Minimum Wage Rates in Canada & the Provinces - Costs of Raising a Child - more...

Research Reports
- links to dozens of reports dating back to the mid-1990s

Sampling of CCSD poverty reports:

Income Inequality as a Determinant of Health
April 6, 2004
A report on population health by Health Canada, based on papers and presentations by CCSD's Katherine Scott.

Personal Security Index 2003:
A reflection of how Canadians feel five years later
November 2003
"Canadians increasingly anxious despite positive indicators
Canadians have a little more spending money in their pockets and more confidence in their job security, but they are less satisfied with the ability of their incomes to meet their basic needs – and increasingly anxious about Canada’s health and social safety nets. These are the findings of the five-year review, 1998 to 2002, of the Personal Security Index."

Defining and Re-Defining Poverty: A CCSD Perspective
October 2001
This position paper briefly presents the Canadian Council on Social Development's perspective on poverty lines, with recommendations to Statistics Canada and the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

Low Income Trends in the 1990s
January 2001
Includes : Defining Low Income - The Causes of Low Income - An Overview of Low Income Incidence and Trends in the 1990s - Depth of Low Income - Duration of Low Income - Future Prospects
 

What's Behind a Poverty Line? Backgrounder on Statistics Canada's Income in Canada
June 9, 2000
Backgrounder

Income and Child Well-being: A new perspective on the poverty debate (May 1999)
We believe that a poverty line should not only be used as a way to estimate the number of poor people, it should also be considered as a threshold, below which society will not tolerate income inequality.
(From the Measuring Poverty section of the report)

The Social Indicators Launchpad - links to 65+ sites about social indicators

Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) - Canada
"The Centre for the Study of Living Standards is a non-profit, national, independent organization that seeks to contribute to a better understanding of trends in and determinants of productivity, living standards and economic and
social well-being through research."

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

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Growing Gap, Growing Concerns: Poll
Press Release
November 20, 2006
[version française du communiqué:
Sondage : Écart croissant, préoccupations croissantes]
TORONTO – A record high number of Canadians think Canada’s gap between rich and poor is growing – and it’s causing them concern, according to an Environics Research poll conducted for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The poll reveals three-quarters (76%) of Canadians believe Canada’s gap between rich and poor has grown compared to 10 years ago. That number is up from 2003, when 70% thought the gap had grown. In 1990, 68% of Canadians thought the gap had grown.

Complete report:

November 20, 2006
GROWING GAP,
GROWING CONCERNS:
Canadian Attitudes Toward Income Inequality (PDF file - 1MB, 14 pages)
"(...)while many Canadians think that the “rags to riches” story is possible to achieve in Canada, half say that they themselves are only one or two missed pay-cheques away from economic disaster."

Related Link:

The GrowingGap
The growinggap.ca is an initiative of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Inequality Project, a national project to increase public awareness about the alarming spread of income and wealth inequality in Canada.

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 Social Development Canada

Indicators of Well-being in Canada - Updated April 2008
All indicators in the Work area have been updated with the latest data, as well as the following indicators in the Health area:
* Life Expectancy at Birth
* Low Birth Weight
* Infant Mortality
[Click the link above and then (on the next page) select any of the following indicators in the left margin:
* Work * Learning * Financial Security * Family Life * Housing * Social Participation * Leisure * Health * Security * Environment]

January 2008
Indicators of Well-being in Canada
This new HRSDC website presents comprehensive, up-to-date information on the well-being of Canadians and Canadian society, and how that may be changing over time.
- incl. links to info about : Work | Learning | Financial Security | Family Life | Housing | Social Participation | Leisure | Health | Security | Environment

"(...) 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
"(...) In this paper we examine the possibility that conclusions about the association between poverty and children's well-being may be sensitive to choices made about how to measure 'poverty.' In particular, we focus upon the influence of data set chosen, sample selected and poverty line used. Throughout, the analysis is conducted for children in both Canada and the United States, both to emphasize that these issues are not unique to the Canadian situation and to point out the influence of measurement choices upon our understanding of Canada/US comparisons of children's poverty and/or well-being. The principal data sets used are the Survey of Consumer Finance and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth for Canada and the Current Population Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth — Mother/Child Supplement for the United States."
Complete paper (HTML)
Complete paper (PDF) (727K, 37 pages)

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.

MBM Background Analysis/Commentary

Full Time Workers Still in Poverty
Press Release
May 3, 2004
"Many Canadians in full-time jobs did not make it to the poverty line in 2000, said the National Council of Welfare in a report released today. Full-time, full-year jobs at minimum wages left workers in poverty. The National Council of Welfare found take-home incomes were consistently below the most commonly-used poverty line, the Low Income Cut-offs or LICOs from Statistics Canada. But the situation looked just as bad using the new Market Basket Measure (MBM) of poverty – even though this new poverty line sets the bar a little lower. There were a few exceptions to the rule, mostly in Quebec where minimum-wage workers made it over the MBM line."

Income for Living?
(complete report)
Spring 2004
HTML version
PDF version (417K, 96 pages)
Executive Summary (HTML)

Fact Sheet : Definitions of the Most Common Poverty Lines used in Canada
June 2003

Source:
National Council of Welfare
Advisory body of the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada (now Social Development Canada)

The Market Basket Measure: The Report, The Response
June 9, 2003
Source:
Charity Village

Concerns about the Market Basket Measure
by Chris Sarlo
Source:
Fraser Forum - July 2003

Historical information from the 1994 Social Security Reform : Improving Social Security in Canada : A Discussion Paper October 1994  (212K, 61 pages) Improving Social Security in Canada was the main document of the 1994 Social Security Review. It presented arguments about the need for reform of the federal government's involvement in provincial-territorial social security programs. It also presented an analysis of and options for Human Resources Development Canada's three-pronged mandate --- working, learning and security. The section entitled "Security: Building opportunity for people in need" focuses on the federal government's role in Canadian social security programs in 1994-95 and proposed reform options. (Click on the title of the report, then scroll down the page to the table of contents to find the Security section) Here's what you'll find in that section: Introduction - What the federal government does now - The Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) - The Child Tax Benefit - The need for CAP reform - The goals for reform - Approaches to reform - Possible first steps - Longer-term approaches to reform This 1994 report lays the groundwork for the reform of federal social transfers, the reform of Unemployment/Employment Insurance and the federal role in education in Canada. Related Links : Reforming the Canada Assistance Plan: A Supplementary Paper (1994) - 121K, 46 pages Income Security for Children: A Supplementary Paper (1994) - 111K, 25 pages) Guaranteed Annual Income: A Supplementary Paper (1994) - 117K, 37 pages Note: For international information about guaranteed annual income (or "basic income") schemes, visit:  the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) - See also the Canadian Social Research Links Guaranteed Annual Income page

Miscellaneous

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

A Surge in Wealth Inequality
December 14, 2006
Posted by Andrew Jackson
"There was a fair amount of media coverage of the new data on assets and debt from the 2005 Survey of Financial Security released by Stats Can last week (...) Slightly buried in the new paper is evidence that wealth inequality is increasing at an even faster rate than was the case in the 1990s, and that the distribution is becoming ever more skewed to the very affluent.

Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics

Related Links:

Revisiting wealth inequality
December 2006
René Morissette and Xuelin Zhang
Source:
Statistics Canada

December 13, 2006
Study: Inequality in wealth, 1984 to 2005
The gap between the nation's families with the highest net worth and those with the lowest widened between 1999 and 2005, in part because of gains in the value of housing, a new study shows.The study, published today in Perspectives on Labour and Income, ranked family units into five groups, or quintiles, from the lowest net worth to the highest. Each represented 20%, or one-fifth, of all families. Between 1999 and 2005, the median net worth of families in the top fifth of the wealth distribution increased by 19%, while the net worth of their counterparts in the bottom fifth remained virtually unchanged.

Source:
Statistics Canada

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)

Larger investment in Canada's poorest needed: report
Press Release
October 31, 2002
"Social policy in Canada should go further to address the needs of Canada's poorest, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, titled Snakes and Ladders: A Policy Brief on Poverty Dynamics."
Complete report (PDF file - 667K, 15 pages)
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

BC home to greatest wealth gap in Canada
by Steve Kerstetter
Net worth­­or wealth­­is all personal assets minus all personal debts. In 1999, the people of British Columbia had total estimated wealth of $423.5 billion. That worked out to an average of $251,235 for each family unit­­a higher average than existed in any other province. The actual distribution of wealth among family units, however, was anything but equal.
News release - November 28, 2001
Online version - HTML
PDF version (84K, 4 pages)
Source:
BC Office of the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Poverty, Income Inequality, and Health in Canada (PDF file - 572K, 32 pages)
Dr. Dennis Raphael
School of Health Policy and Management
York University
The CSJ Foundation for Research and Education
Toronto
June 2002
Source:
Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)

Also from CSJ:

CANADA’S GREAT DIVIDE:
The politics of the growing gap between rich and poor in the 1990s (PDF file - 713K, 74 pages)
By Armine Yalnizyan
January 2000

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

National Anti-Poverty Organization
The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that represents the interests of low-income Canadians

Full Time Workers Still in Poverty
Press Release
May 3, 2004
"Many Canadians in full-time jobs did not make it to the poverty line in 2000, said the National Council of Welfare in a report released today. Full-time, full-year jobs at minimum wages left workers in poverty. The National Council of Welfare found take-home incomes were consistently below the most commonly-used poverty line, the Low Income Cut-offs or LICOs from Statistics Canada. But the situation looked just as bad using the new Market Basket Measure (MBM) of poverty – even though this new poverty line sets the bar a little lower. There were a few exceptions to the rule, mostly in Quebec where minimum-wage workers made it over the MBM line."

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

GPI Atlantic - Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada
"GPI Atlantic is a non-profit research group, founded in 1997, to develop an index of sustainable development and well being - the Genuine Progress Index. The Nova Scotia GPI consists of 22 social, economic and environmental components, including: Time Use - Natural Capital - Environment/Quality - Socioeconomic issues - Income Distribution - Social Capita"
- incl. links to : About Us | GPINews | Publications | Presentations | Articles/Press Releases | Media Clippings | Community GPI | Membership | Current Activities | Services | Directors/Researchers | Book Store | Search | Links | Environment | RealityCheck

The Restructuring of the Canadian Welfare State: Ideology and Policy
Maureen Baker
June 1997
- includes information about the history of Canadian social programs and the transition from CAP to CHST.
- 33 pages - click on "PDF" in the lower left corner of the page to access the file

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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