Poverty Reduction Strategy will effect one in eight Canadians living in poverty

Renjie Zhao
By Renjie Zhao March 3, 2019 16:03

With one in eight Canadians living in poverty, Opportunity for All is historic as Canada’s first poverty reduction strategy.

“We take this federal reduction strategy plan and make it specific to Windsor, “said Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie. 

The strategy sets Canada’s official poverty line, creates ambitious targets to reduce poverty by 20 per cent in 2020 and 50 per cent by 2030, establish a National Council on Poverty, improve data measurement and pass legislation for future governments.  

About $47.5 million in municipal funds budgeted for the programs noted above, for a total overall contribution of $236.2 million to address poverty in our community, according to the City of Windsor website. 

McKenzie said the official poverty line has long been debated because a consensus could not be reached on the official measure of income. 

The federal government has given us a data metric that we all can rely on across Canada,” he said.  

We need dollars and people intellectual capacity to try to mitigate these issues moving forward. So, it’s an important metric.” 

If individuals and families cannot afford the cost of these basket goods in their community, they will be living in poverty. Canada’s Official Poverty line is set at $36,872 for a family of four. 

Fabio Costante, Ward 2 councillor said, “this is born out of a federal initiative to institute a federal poverty reduction plan. It’s kind of an umbrella plan but also, more importantly, how do we localize it? How do we take this federal reduction strategy plan and make it specific to Windsor because every community and every municipality has its own unique challenges?” 

A range will be discussed locally in the future to determine what that number is.

There will be a more comprehensive report which gives an opportunity for council to debate it.  

McKenzie was very delighted to see the federal government identify this data point.

“We can now use across Canada moving forward, it makes Canada a more inclusive and prosperous nation,” McKenzie said. 

Renjie Zhao
By Renjie Zhao March 3, 2019 16:03

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