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Statistics Canada has created an "Opportunity for All"; a dashboard of 12 indicators to track progress on deep income poverty as well as the aspects of poverty other than income, including indicators of material deprivation, lack of opportunity and resilience. These indicators are broadly grouped into three categories: dignity, opportunity and inclusion and resilience and security.
The financial resilience and financial well-being of Canadians with low incomes: Insights and analysis to support the financial empowerment sector detailed report, provides data and insights on the financial impact of the pandemic on Canadians with low incomes and their financial health, resilience and financial well-being in June 2021 compared to June 2018. The report is authored by Seymour Management Consulting Inc., the leading independent authority on financial health in Canada. Data levers the Seymour Financial Resilience Index ™ and five years’ of national longitudinal Financial Well-Being studies data. The report, commissioned by Prosper Canada and the ABLE Financial Empowerment Network, is relevant for Governments, Financial Institutions, NPOs, organizations and leaders working to help improve the financial well-being of Canadians. It paints a stark picture on the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on low-income Canadians and those who are more financially vulnerable. The Index, with a pre-pandemic baseline of February 2020, is complemented with targeted analysis of June 2021 and June 2018 Financial Well-Being studies. Data also relates to impacts on well-being dimensions and challenges in accessing support from Financial Institutions and NPOs. Read the summary report, The Financial Resilience and Financial Well-Being of Canadians with Low Incomes (summary)
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit program (CERB) was introduced to provide financial support to employees and self-employed workers in Canada who were directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines the proportion of 2019 workers who received CERB payments in 2020 by various characteristics. CERB take-up rates are presented by industry, earnings group in 2019, sex, age group and province, as well as for population groups designated as visible minorities, immigrants and Indigenous people. Some factors that help explain differences in take-up rates among these groups of workers are also examined.
An important aspect of the impact of COVID-19 is its disproportional impact across gender. This Insights article proposes a year-over-year approach that compares employment from March 2020 to February 2021 to their March-2019-to-February-2020 counterparts. It uses the Labour Force Survey to study gender gaps patterns in employment by industrial sector (goods or services) and firm size.
In August 2018, the Government of Canada announced Opportunity for All – Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Strategy included a commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goal's target of reducing poverty by 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2030. Opportunity for All included the adoption of the Market Basket Measure (MBM) as Canada's Official Poverty Line and the creation of the National Advisory Council on Poverty (Council) to report on progress made toward the poverty reduction targets. This is the first report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty. It continues Canada's discussion on poverty by bringing forward the voices of individuals with lived expertise of poverty. It details progress toward our poverty targets and recommends improvements to our poverty reduction efforts.
Canada is a prosperous country, yet in 2015 roughly 1 in 8 Canadians lived in poverty. The vision of Opportunity for All – Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy is a Canada without poverty, because we all suffer when our fellow citizens are left behind. We are all in this together, from governments, to community organizations, to the private sector, to all Canadians who are working hard each and every day to provide for themselves and their families. For the first time in Canada's history, the Strategy sets an official measure of poverty: Canada's Official Poverty Line, based on the cost of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet their basic needs and achieve a modest standard of living in communities across the country. Opportunity for All sets, for the first time, ambitious and concrete poverty reduction targets: a 20% reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50% reduction in poverty by 2030, which, relative to 2015 levels, will lead to the lowest poverty rate in Canada's history. Through Opportunity for All, we are putting in place a National Advisory Council on Poverty to advise the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development on poverty reduction and to publicly report, in each year, on the progress that has been made toward poverty reduction. The Government also proposes to introduce the first Poverty Reduction Act in Parliament in Canada’s history. This Act would entrench the targets, Canada's Official Poverty Line, and the Advisory Council into legislation.
In this paper, administrative Canadian tax data are exploited to compute measures of intergenerational income mobility at the national, provincial and territorial levels. This work provides detailed descriptive evidence on trends in social mobility. Five cohorts of Canadians, born between 1963 and 1985, are observed as teens living with their parents and again as adults in their late 20s and early 30s.
Canadians with mental health-related disabilities were more than twice as likely as those without disabilities to live in households considered to be in core housing need in 2017. Canadians with mental health-related disabilities were also more likely than those without disabilities to live alone, to rent their homes and to live in subsidized housing, according to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD). The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has identified those living with pre-existing mental health-related disabilities as a particularly vulnerable population because of the impacts of isolation and disruptions to mental health-related services during the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent crowdsourcing survey by Statistics Canada found that almost three-quarters (73%) of participants with mental health-related disabilities stated that their mental health had worsened since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, PHAC has indicated that those living with inadequate or unsuitable housing are also more vulnerable during the pandemic and are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. This infographic presents pre-existing living situations and housing conditions among Canadians with mental health-related disabilities that may put them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, as well as the emotional and psychosocial impacts of living through a pandemic.
This study, commissioned by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and conducted by the Brondesbury Group, provides some insights on the knowledge that older Canadians have about the financial realities of retirement and how they would apply that knowledge earlier in life if they are able to do so. The top financial concerns and main financial risks of older Canadians are identified for each life stage and how they are being managed are discussed.
