A new report on poverty challenges both Liberals and Conservatives

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre understandably seized on a new report card released last week by Food Banks Canada that highlighted the number of Canadians who are living in poverty, struggling to pay their bills and turning to food banks for help.

"Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal prime minister's taxes, debt, inflation and promises, Canadians are literally hungry," Poilievre said in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau predictably responded by pointing to the support programs his government is rolling out — including funding for child care, dental care and a new school food program — and warned that a Conservative government would only cut such initiatives.

"These are investments that they are opposed to and that we are there to help Canadians with," Trudeau said.

In fact, the findings and recommendations laid out in last week's report present a challenge for both Liberals and Conservatives.

As the report notes, poverty in Canada declined markedly between 2015 and 2020 — the share of Canadians living below the poverty line fell from 14.5 per cent to 6.4 per cent. A report released by UNICEF last December found that Canada experienced one of the largest proportional drops in child poverty among developed countries between 2012 and 2021.

Some of that reduction in poverty can be attributed to policies like the Canada Child Benefit, introduced by the Trudeau government in 2016. The income support programs launched at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic actually helped to drive poverty in Canada even lower.

But that progress has eroded over the last few years; in 2022, the poverty rate was back up to 9.9 per cent. The report also points out that 23 per cent of Canadians are experiencing "food insecurity" and 44 per cent say they feel worse off than they were last year.

Some of that erosion, the Food Banks report notes, can be traced to the withdrawal of pandemic-era income supports. But the authors also point to four larger factors: rapid population growth without the social infrastructure to support it, a succession of interest rate hikes alongside high inflation, a lack of housing and a slowdown in economic activity accompanied by a slightly higher unemployment rate.

The Trudeau Liberals would say they're taking action in response to those challenges. And the authors of the Food Banks Canada report would not disagree entirely, particularly when it comes to the moves the government has made on housing over the last year.

But they also argue there's more the government could be doing — or should have done already.

Seven of the 27 federal policy recommendations reviewed in the report relate to employment insurance reform. All are listed as showing "no progress." In the throne speech delivered in September 2020, the Liberals said it was clear Canada needed an "EI system for the 21st century"; so far they've failed to follow through. At this point, it seems unlikely EI will see comprehensive reform before the next election.

The Food Banks Canada report commends the creation of the new Canada Disability Benefit but laments, as others have, that it has not received more funding. Advocates had hoped it would provide about $1,000 per month to recipients, but the benefit is currently set to provide just $200 per month.

The report suggests all federal benefits should be indexed to inflation and that efforts should be made to prevent provinces from clawing back their own programs in response to new federal programs (a potentially relevant issue for the Canada Disability Benefit). It also proposes the creation of a permanent "groceries and essentials benefit" — effectively an enhanced GST tax rebate, which was first proposed last year by a panel of experts convened by the Institute for Research on Public Policy.