1. Poverty Can YOU Identify the Odd One Out

6. Poverty What causes economic disparity? According to, The Geography of Wealth and Poverty, it’s: –Political –Economic –Environmental (Physical Geography) Let’s take a closer look…

7. Canada Politics: Democratic Economics: Capitalist Physical Geography: –Top three cities are Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver…all are close to waterways –Temperate climate so no major epidemics –Great soil for agricultural production

8. Poverty in Canada SO does poverty exist in Canada? let’s Think Pair Share this one…

9. Poverty in Canada How do we measure poverty? Statistics Canada states that its low- income cut-off (LICO) figures are not a measure of poverty, but of income inequality Doesn’t this sound like relative poverty???

10. Poverty in Canada Many media companies and poverty activists use the LICOs as the country’s unofficial poverty line measure since there is nothing else LICO counts the number of Canadians who spend 20% points more of their gross income on food, shelter, and clothing than the average Canadian For example, in 2006, if a family spent more than 63% of its gross income on those necessities, it’s below the LICO aka poverty line

11. Poverty in Canada Before Tax Low-Income Cut-Offs (LICOs), 2006 Population of Community of Residence Family Size500,000 +100,000-499,99930,000-99,999Less than 30,000*Rural 1 $21,202$18,260$18,147$16,605$14,596 2 $26,396$22,731$22,591$20,671$18,170 3 $32,450$27,945$27,773$25,412$22,338 4 $39,399$33,930$33,721$30,855$27,122 5 $44,686$38,482$38,245$34,995$30,760 6 $50,397$43,402$43,135$39,469$34,694 7 + $56,110$48,322$48,024$43,943$38,626 Notes: This table uses the 1992 base. *Includes cities with a population between 15,000 and 30,000 and small urban areas (under 15,000). Source: Prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development using Statistics Canada's Catalogue # 75-F0002MIE.

12. Poverty in Canada Criticisms of using LICO: –If there is an income percentage remaining, then there is money to be spent elsewhere and therefore it’s not poverty –Statistics Canada says there is no generic formula or definition of who is poor –It’s a relative measure of poverty…as the economy grows and people make more money the LICO will also increase

13. Poverty in Canada The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development uses another relative measure of poverty: –Median after-tax income which defines anyone below the median to be poor –In 2000 Canada’s poverty rate was 10.3%; US was 17.1%, Mexico it was 20.3%

14. Poverty in Canada Human Resources and Development Canada developed the Market Basket Measure –where the cost of goods and services needed for a typical family of four are calculated –In 2002 15.4% of Canadian families were considered poor

15. Poverty in Canada Clearly there are problems with defining who is poor in Canada…and elsewhere So how do we define who is poor? –According to our class, what criteria should be considered to determine who is poor and what does it mean to be poor in Canada?