A worker in the warehouse at the Moisson Montreal food bank in November, 2024.Graham Hughes/The Globe and Mail
It was 2018 when the federal government released Canada’s first-ever poverty-reduction strategy with much fanfare.
Titled Opportunity for All‚ the action plan established the country’s official poverty line, a measure that reflects the aggregate costs of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet basic needs.
The federal strategy also set two poverty-reduction targets that were later enshrined in legislation. The government’s first goal was a 20-per-cent reduction in the poverty rate by 2020 from its 2015 level, when one in every eight Canadians, or about 12 per cent, lived in poverty. Its second goal was a 50-per-cent decrease in the poverty rate compared to the 2015 baseline by 2030.
In other words, Ottawa vowed to reduce the number of people living in poverty to one in 10 (or 10 per cent) by 2020, and to one in 17 by 2030 (6 per cent) – targets it previously described as “ambitious but realistic.”
But those goals were set eight years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing surge in inflation that exacerbated a cost-of-living crisis across the country. Inflation has since fallen from its peak in 2022, but Canada is still losing the fight against poverty.
Recently, the Carney government appropriately responded with an increase to the GST credit and other measures to tackle the affordability crisis. Opposition parties also deserve kudos for setting aside partisan politics to fast-track this legislation.
Opinion: The good, the bad and the puzzling of Carney’s new GST rebate
But with the Canadian economy in the throes of structural change and already marked by elevated unemployment levels, especially for young people, our parliamentarians need to do more to solve this pernicious problem.
“Poverty is going up in Canada and has been since 2021. In 2023, 10.2 per cent of individuals in Canada – about four million people – were living in poverty. While poverty grew more slowly between 2022 and 2023, it has increased for three years in a row,” states the 2025 report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty.
The council was specifically set up to track the government’s progress on achieving its poverty-reduction goals.
“This is putting Canada at risk of missing its target to reduce poverty by half by 2030,” added its report.
That our fellow Canadians – the most vulnerable among us, including children – are suffering from hunger, homelessness and hopelessness should be imperative enough to act.
But if this somehow leaves you unfazed as a human being, then reframe it as an economic and fiscal policy issue because there is a collective price to pay when poor people lose their dignity.
Although the statistics are badly out of date, it is estimated that poverty costs Canada tens of billions of dollars each year through higher health care and social-services costs, making this a pressing concern for every single taxpayer.
That low-income people are struggling to afford the bare necessities, such as food and rent, has also caught the attention of some of the smartest minds on Bay Street.
Royal Bank of Canada’s economics team, for instance, has said it plans to delve into “structural affordability challenges” and potential solutions in 2026.
“Since January, 2020, prices measured by the Consumer Price Index have risen about 20 per cent – below wage increases of 25 per cent over the same period – suggesting some real income growth,” reads RBC’s recent analysis.
“However, prices for essentials including food and housing have grown much faster, both at about 30 per cent, well outpacing wage growth. For lower-income Canadians, who spend more of their income on food and rent, this type of inflation hurts more.”
RBC’s report also notes that while some Canadian households have experienced a wealth effect from rising equity markets, low-income people have not experienced those gains.
(Yes, North American stock markets have been somewhat choppy recently, but the S&P/TSX Composite Index alone is up about 77 per cent over the last five years.)
That has helped offset the affordability challenges for some Canadians, but certainly not the poorest of the poor.
Formulating solutions, of course, relies on political will and better data. It is troubling that the government’s official dashboard tracking poverty indicators still features statistics from 2023.
“Our social safety net wasn’t designed to handle the current challenges and socio-economic pressures,” states the 2025 report from the National Advisory Council on Poverty. “We need to respond quickly to protect Canadians experiencing poverty and protect others from falling into it.”
The council puts it aptly: It’s not a safety net if the holes are this big.