Poverty and Anti-Black Racism: What Poverty Rates Tell Us (and Don't Tell Us) About Blackness in Canada

Poverty rates are revealing. Every five years, Canada conducts a Census that provides us with a snapshot of the population. Income and poverty are two of the important snippets of information reported by the Census that offer a glimpse of how people are doing.

Across Canada, many people continue to struggle daily in the reality of poverty. The fact that certain groups of people are more likely to experience poverty sheds light on what causes low-income and consequent poverty and what to do about it. Historically, Black Canadians are disproportionately represented among the population that lives with low-income.

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2023 Federal Budget Submission

Read the submission by the Canadian Poverty Institute to the Government of Canada on our priorities for the upcoming federal budget. We highlight and provide recommendations in the areas of Human Rights, Income Support, Jobs and the Economy, Housing, Food Security, Environment and Climate Change, Transportation and Health Care.

Read our Submission Here.

The Right to Refuge

Extreme cold and other hazardous weather conditions constitute a risk to the life, health and well-being of people, especially those who are unhoused. In such conditions, those without shelter often take refuge in public spaces such as transit stations. Denying them the right to safe shelter without providing access to alternate safe spaces is a violation of their basic right to life and security of the person.

Read our call to all municipal governments to affirm the right of all people to seek refuge in public spaces during extreme weather conditions.

The Right to Refuge: A Call to Action to Municipal Governments

Opinion: The Right to Refuge Must Be Enshrined by Calgary City Council. Guest Editorial in Calgary Herald, January 21, 2023.

2022 Year in Review

As we begin 2023 it is a good time to look back and reflect on the accomplishments of the past year. For the Canadian Poverty Institute, 2022 was a year of tremendous activity as we continued to pursue our mission “to advance the eradication of poverty in Canada through research, teaching and action that promotes systems change.” Read about our work in these three areas.

CPI Year in Review 2022

Inflation by Income: Differential Spending Patterns and Low-income Disadvantage

Recent increases in the rate of inflation have caused concern about the financial resilience of Canadian households. Of particular concern are significant increases in the cost of basic necessities such as food, shelter and transportation. The impact of price increases in these goods and services, however, will affect households differently depending on the share of the household budget allocated to those items.

This report examines the impact of inflation on different income groups based on their differential household spending patterns. Based on this analysis, the lowest income households in Canada experienced a 5.8% rate of inflation in 2022 compared to a rate of only 3.7% among the highest income households. This differential will exacerbate existing trends of economic and social inequality.

Read the full report here.

The Longest Night of the Year

December 21st was not only the longest but also the coldest night of the year. Despite this, people experiencing homelessness continued to be removed from places of shelter such as transit vehicles and stations into the cold. Granted, such places are not intended or equipped to serve as homeless shelters. At the same time, the response of simply removing people from what is perhaps their only place of refuge during extreme weather is equally untenable and morally wrong.

As a matter of principle and in fulfillment of Calgary and Canada’s human rights obligations, if during life threatening situations, people are taking refuge in places not designed for shelter, there should be an obligation to ensure that they are transferred responsibly to appropriate alternate places of shelter, or allow them to remain until such transfer can be arranged. We call on The City of Calgary to adopt such a policy and process immediately.

Read our call to The City of Calgary here.