Poverty Trends 2024

Finding our Place in Systemic Change

Released annually, CPJ’s Poverty Trends reports provide readers with a review of data on poverty in Canada and the state of government action, as well as a vision for how we can move forward.

This year’s report is titled, Poverty Trends 2024: Finding our Place in Systemic Change.

What’s inside:

This year’s Poverty Trends shows that several measures of poverty in Canada are moving in the wrong direction. Intersecting and deep-set inequitable structures and practices make poverty persistent—but they do not make it inevitable.

Using the most recent available data on poverty and inequity in Canada, as well as looking back at historic policies, our research places current experiences of poverty within historic and contemporary contexts and invites each of us to find our place in movements for change.

We contend that the experiences of poverty we see in Canada today are the result of policy choices—and we can choose better. Evidence-based solutions exist, some of which are already being used in Canada and other places in the world. But many of them need to be expanded to effectively and equitably tackle persistent trends in people’s experiences of poverty. That’s why this report’s policy recommendations fall into four categories that tackle the most necessary aspects of poverty:

• improving income supports, including a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income and the Canada Disability Benefit,
• publicly funded infrastructure and services such as a non-market, affordable, and accessible rental housing supply
• regulatory controls, which can generate the revenue needed for these programs, and
• monitoring and accountability, which are crucial for shaping future poverty reduction efforts.

Let’s Connect!

Our hope is that you will share this report with others in your community, workplace, place of worship, school, or other networks, and explore ways to act on the information and ideas offered. There is a wonderful variety of people, communities, sectors, and movements committed to our shared vision for a more just and sustainable society – and there is a place for you, too!

Stay tuned to CPJ’s work on poverty reduction in Canada via our JusticE-News letter or on social media.