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CDB and the Poverty Line

We are regularly asked what the poverty line is – and unfortunately there’s no simple answer. Canada’s Official Poverty Line is made up of 66 separate poverty lines, calculated by Statistics Canada, based on the size of the community and uses something called the Market Basket Measure. It’s calculated for a family of 4, and then further calculations are done for individuals and couples. These are the poverty lines in the largest city in each province, calculated monthly:

Province

City

Individual

Couple

Couple & 2 kids

NL

St. John’s

2,210

3,094

4,420

PEI

Charlottetown

2,213

3,098

4,426

NS

Halifax

2,290

3,206

4,581

NB

Fredericton

2,225

3,115

4,450

QC

Montreal

2,018

2,825

4,035

ON

Toronto

2,397

3,356

4,794

MN

Winnipeg

2,211

3,095

4,422

SK

Saskatoon

2,262

3,167

4,524

AB

Calgary

2,413

3,378

4,826

BC

Vancouver

2,423

3,393

4,847

YK

Whitehorse

2,593

3,630

5,185

NWT

Yellowknife

2,929

4,100

5,858

NV

Iqaluit

5,075

7,104

10,149

In the regulations for the Canada Disability Benefit, a lot of the amounts are given annually, so this is the same information, given as an annual poverty line:

Province

City

Individual

Couple

Couple & 2 kids

NL

St. John’s

26,519

37,126

53,037

PEI

Charlottetown

26,553

37,174

53,106

NS

Halifax

27,483

38,476

54,966

NB

Fredericton

26,703

37,384

53,405

QC

Montreal

24,212

33,897

48,424

ON

Toronto

28,766

40,272

57,531

MN

Winnipeg

26,532

37,145

53,064

SK

Saskatoon

27,146

38,004

54,292

AB

Calgary

28,955

40,536

57,909

BC

Vancouver

29,082

40,714

58,163

YK

Whitehorse

31,110

43,554

62,220

NWT

Yellowknife

35,147

49,206

70,294

NV

Iqaluit

60,896

85,254

121,791

If you would like to learn more about the poverty line in your community, you can find it on the Statistics Canada website here.

Poverty and food insecurity in your riding

This wonderful resource by our friends at Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) allows you to gether a number of statistics within your riding. Simply type in your address, and it provides statiscs on poverty, food insecurity, number of households, disability among other statistics. You can download the report. There is also a place to email your MP to tell them that Canada needs better income policies to reduce poverty and food insecurity!  

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