"Among findings cited in the study:

Between 1997 and 2003, Canada's economy was the fastest-growing among G-8 countries, increasing 55 per cent in real terms.
Federal spending stands at 11 per cent of the economy, down from 16 per cent in 1993-94 - well below historic averages. Recent increases in spending have not offset the deep cuts of the 90s.
Only 38 per cent of unemployed workers receive government benefits, down from 75 per cent in the early 90s.
More than 1.7 million households live on less than $20,000 a year, and most are precariously housed. They do not own their own homes and spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.
Cuts to post-secondary education and deregulation of fees have doubled or tripled tuition costs.
Despite repeated promises, there is no national child care program. "
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/09/14/canada_poverty20050914.html#skip300x250


"Statistics Canada sends off letters stating that its low-income cut-off (LICO) figures are not a measure of poverty, but of income inequality. Despite this, many media companies and poverty activists use the LICOs as the country's "unofficial" poverty line.

The LICO counts the number of Canadians who spend 20 percentage points more of their gross income on food, shelter and clothing than the average Canadian. So, as of 2006, if a family spends more than 63 per cent of its gross income on those necessities, it's below the LICO.

As of 2004, 15.5 per cent of Canadians were below the low-income cut-off. "

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/poverty-line.html

"The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development uses another relative measure of poverty. It takes all of the after-tax incomes in a particular country and finds the income such that half the people in the country make more and half make less. That's the median after-tax income. Anyone who makes less than half of that median income is considered poor. By that measure, Canada's poverty rate in 2000 was 10.3 per cent, close to the OECD average. In the U.S., the rate was 17.1 per cent, in Mexico it was 20.3 per cent and in Denmark, it was 4.3 per cent. Statistics Canada uses a similar calculation, called the Low Income Measures, which uses pre-tax incomes. "

"Another way to measure poverty is in absolute terms: how many people make less than what is needed to survive or lead a decent life?

Human Resources and Development Canada developed such a measurement, called the Market Basket Measure, based on the cost of goods and services needed for a typical family of four — two parents and two children — to eat a nutritious diet, buy clothing for work and social occasions, house themselves in their community and pay for other necessary expenditures, such as furniture, public transportation and entertainment. For 2002, using the MBM, the incidence of low income among Canadian families with children was 15.4 percent. The MBM is considered a more precise reflection of differences in cost of living from region to region. "

"Nipissing University economics professor Christopher Sarlo developed another absolute measure of poverty for a 1992 study called Poverty in Canada. Sarlo defines poverty as lacking the means for the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter and clothing, and criticizes the use of LICOs as a poverty line.

"At about $34,000 per year for a family of four in a large urban area, the LICO measure is too high to be believable as a threshold of impoverishment," he wrote in his 2001 report Measuring Poverty in Canada.

The first version of his Basic Needs Index put the poverty rate at just four per cent. It was criticized for its frugality, though: Sarlo's weekly food budget for an elderly woman was $25. A revised version of the index was released in 2001, including such things as out-of-pocket medical expenses, and put the basic needs poverty line at $19,962 for a family of four, averaged across Canada. That study put the poverty rate at eight per cent. "