CONCLUSION
The downward trend in poverty rates since the highs of the mid-90s reversed
course
somewhat in 2002. Rates then recovered enough so that by 2003 they were
still close to the
10-year lows experienced in 2001. So is poverty no longer a problem in
Canada? Not by any
means. Poverty rates for children and working age adults have gone up and
down, fluctuating
significantly since 1980 when the National Council of Welfare started its
regular, detailed
tracking of trends. Many Canadians were still at greater risk of poverty in
2003 than they were
almost a quarter of a century earlier.

Although poverty rates for seniors have come down sharply since 1980, the
situation for
other Canadians is characterized by insecurity and uncertainty for the
future. About 16 percent
of Canadians, or 4.9 million people, lived in poverty in 2003. Women
continued to have
higher poverty rates than men, despite their paid and unpaid contributions
to Canada’s
economic growth. Single-parent mothers had a poverty rate of 49 percent,
many times higher
than lone-parent fathers or other mothers. Half a million working-age
single people struggled
on incomes of less than half the poverty line. More than 1.2 million
children - one child out of
every six - lived in poverty. People forced to live on social assistance
continued to have
incomes thousands of dollars below the poverty line. Income inequality
between the richest
and the poorest grew.

This is not a good record for a country that has achieved much when it has
shown
determination to act and that incorrectly prides itself on its economic and
social standing in
the world. In June of 2006, the United Nations Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural
Rights again criticized Canadian governments for their negligence in not
living up to the
human rights obligations they have made to Canadian citizens. Members of
the Committee
were disturbed by the lack of investment in social programs and by
continuing high poverty
rates in such a rich country, “… especially among disadvantaged and
marginalized individuals
and groups such as Aboriginal peoples, African-Canadians, immigrants,
persons with
disabilities, youth, low-income women and single mothers.”1

The National Council of Welfare is as concerned as the United Nations
Committee that
most Canadian governments appear complacent at best towards the crippling
reality of
poverty. There is ample evidence that poverty not only results in human
misery, but that it
does not make good economic sense. At the individual level, those who live
in poverty are
more likely to experience poor health and well-being. At the community
level, poverty brings
economic, social, political and cultural exclusion and disintegration. At a
country level,
poverty creates decreased productive capacity that in turn limits Canada’s
economic
performance....

1 United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Consideration of Reports
Submitted by States Parties
Under Articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant – Concluding Observations of the
Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Advance Unedited Version), 2006,
E/C.12/CAN/CO/5, page 3.

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