The National Advisory Council on Poverty released their 2024 report yesterday. It confirms what we have been saying for years re: disproportionate levels of poverty for Black and racialized people, and for immigrants, refugees and migrants. This time, they have included undocumented and non-status people in their list of 'most marginalized'. However, they have stopped short of recognizing the systemic barriers presented by immigration/citizenship status (example: barriers in access to the Canada Child Benefit).
One of the findings of interest in the report is below:
In particular, racialized persons were more likely to live below the poverty line in 2022 (13.0%) than non-racialized persons (8.7%). Among racialized groups, the poverty rate was highest for persons identifying as Arab (18.7%), Chinese (15.6%) and Black (13.9%). Further, the poverty rate was higher for:
- Indigenous persons aged 15 years and older living off-reserve (17.5%) than for non-Indigenous persons aged 15 years and older (9.6%)
- persons with a disability aged 15 years and older (12.3%) than persons without a disability aged 15 years and older (7.4%)
- immigrants aged 15 years and older (10.7%), particularly recent (14.0%) and very recent immigrants (16.4%) in this age group, than persons born in Canada aged 15 years and older (8.6%)
- unattached (single) individuals aged 18 to 64 (30.8%) than their counterparts in families (6.3%) of the same age range
- persons in female-led lone parent families (23.8%) than persons in couple families with children (6.3%)
Their recommendations are quite broad. In addition to the usual references to the need for a living wage, basic income floor, income security, food security and improving access to benefits and services, they also recognize the need to adequately resource the nonprofit sector and call for adequate compensation for sector workers.
Their recommendations on addressing racial inequities could be stronger (ie. no systemic changes are proposed). Please read below for the report in French and English.