For the first time, Food Banks Canada has introduced poverty report cards, systematically evaluating all provinces and territories. These assessments encompass a range of criteria associated with poverty reduction and the overall standard of living, with a specific focus on evaluating quality of life.
Numerous factors affect the quality of life in different places, whether a nation, province, city, or neighborhood. We will examine each Canadian province and territory’s performance using Food Banks Canada’s grade cards in the sections that follow. The number of new permanent residents in 2022 determines the ranking. Prospective immigrants and current immigrants who want to understand the differences in quality of life across Canada will find this information to be especially helpful.
Outcomes of the poverty report card
Using a wide range of measures organized under four main themes—experience of poverty, poverty indicators, material deprivation, and progress in anti-poverty legislation—Food Banks Canada has evaluated each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories. This assessment includes a number of particular measurements, such as:
- Financial Distress: Assessment of economic hardship experienced by individuals and families.
- Limited Healthcare Access: Evaluation of challenges in accessing healthcare services and resources.
- Food Insecurity: Examination of the prevalence of inadequate access to sufficient and nutritious food.
- Substandard Living Conditions: Analysis of the quality of living arrangements, encompassing aspects like housing conditions and amenities.
- Employment Status: Evaluation of employment-related factors, such as job opportunities and income stability.
These metrics provide a complete view of Canada’s efforts and results in reducing poverty at the provincial and territory levels.
The report cards from Food Banks Canada are evaluations of various levels of government’s efforts to combat poverty. They include information on how poverty is felt across Canada and make recommendations for improving social policy development. The total rankings for each province are as follows:
- Quebec: B-
- Prince Edward Island: C-
- Manitoba: C-
- British Columbia: D+
- Newfoundland and Labrador: D-
- New Brunswick: D-
- Alberta: D
- Saskatchewan: D
- Ontario: D-
- Nova Scotia: F
Additionally, the report card for the territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) received an “Incomplete” grade due to data limitations.
These rankings show the success of initiatives to reduce poverty and point out areas where social policies might be strengthened by the government.
Recommendations for policies by food banks Canada
In their 2022 HungerCount study, Food Banks Canada outlined four major types of policy suggestions, which are further described below.
Set a minimum income threshold
Although the government has implemented some minimal income floor (MIF) measures for Canadian seniors and families with children, Food Banks Canada urges the government to broaden this program to include all Canadians. The group suggests adding two new MIF pillars: one for Canadians with impairments and the other for single, unmarried people of working age.
Food Banks Canada notes that an increasing number of people with disabilities are turning to food banks because their incomes are insufficient. Even after accounting for federal benefits, no jurisdiction in Canada provide enough income to single Canadians with disabilities. Adults who are single and of working age are seeing a similar trend. By extending the MIF to include these many population segments, we can increase income security and resilience throughout the nation, so ensuring that no one goes hungry or falls behind.
Tackle the issue of affordable housing
Food Banks Canada suggests a number of actions to assist Canadians in their search for affordable housing, which is a major factor in the use of food banks nationwide. These include initiatives to increase affordability in the current housing market as well as an emphasis on the development of new affordable housing units.
For instance, the paper emphasizes Manitoba’s rent assistance program as a case study that enables recipients to properly manage their finances, seek education, and give their children better nutrition. According to Food Banks Canada, there are four crucial steps the federal government of Canada should take to address affordable housing and improve food security and related outcomes:
- Implement a nationwide rent assistance scheme that is based on a broadened Canada Housing Benefit.
- Investigate community-focused funding options to help people buy affordable homes. This could entail giving funds to non-profit groups so they can buy and rent out houses at or below the median market rentals.
- For financial players in the housing sector, such as real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity funds, asset management firms, and pension funds, develop more stringent rules or tax policies.
- Increase the accessibility and availability of affordable housing by implementing all-encompassing policies and methods.
Assist workers with low incomes
Low-wage Canadian workers currently make little money to cover their living expenditures, including rising rent and food prices.
In essence, a sizable section of Canada’s workforce is still categorized as “working poor,” meaning they have jobs but have financial difficulties supporting themselves and their families.
Food Banks Canada suggests the following government measures to improve the financial well-being of low-income employees in Canada:
- Extend the maximum duration of Employment Insurance (EI) benefits to 52 weeks, followed by a gradual reduction in cash benefits while maintaining access to non-cash EI supports like training and education.
- Permanently broaden the EI qualifying definition of “employment” to encompass self-employed and precarious work.
- Review and decrease the required number of employment hours to qualify for EI, which currently ranges from 420 to 700 hours of insurable employment.
- Enhance the provisions of Working While-on-Claim (WWC) in EI, allowing workers to retain a larger portion of their income from temporary or part-time work while on EI.
- Implement government incentives to encourage businesses to provide living wages to all employees.
Address food insecurity in rural and northern Canada
In spite of the fact that programs like Nutrition North have been developed to address food costs and food insecurity through subsidies and other targeted initiatives, this problem is expected to worsen over time, as housing and food costs continue to rise in Canada. However, many had hoped for a positive impact on food costs when the program was first introduced.
There is a significant level of food insecurity in these regions as a result of several factors. They include consistently lower wages, high housing and energy costs, and a lack of access to traditional and reliable food sources.
In order to address the long-term root causes of food insecurity in the North, Food Banks Canada recommends setting up MIFs in these isolated communities, reviewing Nutrition North Canada’s limitations in terms of reducing regional food costs, and increasing internet access in these communities to improve workforce and labor outcomes.
