Québec’s pioneering Bill 112 (“An Act to combat poverty and social exclusion“, passed in 2002) defines poverty as “the condition of a human being who is deprived of the resources, means, choices and power necessary to acquire and maintain economic self-sufficiency and participation in society.”  Thus, poverty is not just about income and deprivation – an inability to meet common basic needs.  It also concerns intangibles such as a lack of opportunity, of meaningful employment, of a sense of belonging, and of a sense of citizenship.

At the federal level, Canada does not yet have an official definition of poverty, nor robust indicators of poverty’s “incidence” and “depth” – meaning the number and percentage of people living in poverty and how deeply in poverty poor Canadians find themselves.  Based on several national and international measures of low income often used as proxies for “poverty lines,” Canada’s poverty rate in the middle part of this decade may have ranged from seven to 19 percent (2.3 to 6.2 million Canadians).  Whether at the low or high ends or somewhere in the middle, such a poverty rate is unacceptable for the ninth wealthiest nation in 2007, with 1.1 million “millionaire households”.

Not every Canadian is equally susceptible to living in poverty.  Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, single parents (primarily women) and their children, recent immigrants to Canada and the roughly one in four or five Canadians toiling in low-paying, often part-time and unstable jobs are at higher risk of being poor.

To live in poverty in Canada is to live with insufficient and often poor quality food.  It is to sleep in poor quality housing, in homeless shelters, or on city streets.  It is on a daily basis to have to make difficult and painful decisions involving trade-offs, such as whether to “pay the rent or feed the kids,” pay the electric bill or go to the dentist, buy a new monthly bus pass or forego inviting friends over for dinner.

To live in poverty in Canada is to be at much greater risk of poor health, violence and a shorter lifespan.  It is to be unable to participate fully in one’s community and greater society.  And it is to suffer great depths of anxiety and emotional pain, borne by young and old alike.

The impact and cost of poverty is not borne by the poor alone, though the poor bear the brunt of it.  There is an impact on and cost to society as a whole, from greater demands on the health care and criminal justice systems, to diminished workplace and economic productivity, to unnecessary, harmful and unwholesome divisions in society based on economic status and “class.”  In dollar terms, one recent estimate of the cost of poverty to Ontario alone placed that cost at $32 to $38 billion – annually.

Graphic (“Alone”) courtesy of Anna Sponer

This page has the following sub pages.

• First Voice Stories of Poverty