More than 1 in 10 Canadians are now living below the poverty line, struggling to cover the high cost of food and housing

StatCan measures poverty based on the Market Basket Measure (MBM). Under the MBM model, a family is in poverty if they cannot afford the cost of a "specific basket of goods and services in their community, after adjusting for family size (2).” The basket of goods and services is not a measure of luxury, but of a basic standard of living. Goods and services in the basket include the cost of food, clothing, transportation, shelter and other modest expenses.

For example, a family of four in Toronto would need to have an income of $61,763 in 2024 to be considered above the poverty line. Calgary's income threshold for 2024 was $57,840, Vancouver's was $64,351, and Montreal's was $49,244 (3).

Regions that saw the largest amount of poverty in 2024 were mainly in Northern Canada, with Nunavut having the highest recorded level at 31.7%. British Columbia was second at 13%, Ontario at 12.5%, while Quebec had the lowest poverty rate at 7%.

StatCan's report also highlighted how the median after-tax income for Canadians in 2024 was $75,500, down slightly from $77,400 in 2023 after adjusting for inflation.

What's driving poverty in Canada?

Under StatCan's MBM model, poverty is directly related to Canadians not meeting a certain income threshold, which largely determines what goods/services they can afford. However, rising costs — especially for essentials like food and shelter — are making it harder for Canadians to stay above the line.

For instance, headline inflation (the total inflation rate representing the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)) has risen nearly 20% since 2020 according to StatCan (4). And during some high-inflation periods, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the median hourly real wage for Canadians fell by nearly 5% (5). The erosion of Canadians' income cuts their ability to pay for necessary goods and puts them at risk of falling under the poverty line.

But headline inflation is not the major issue. Core goods such as food and shelter have been rising faster than headline numbers — which puts even more pressure on Canadians to stay afloat.

Families of four are expected to spend $17,571.79 on food this year according to Canada's Food Price Report 2026, with the cost of food being 27% higher than it was in 2021 (6). In fact, grocery prices have risen more than 30% since 2019, even though overall inflation is settling, according to TD Economics (7).

Shelter prices — the cost of rent, mortgage payment, taxes, utilities and other municipal services (8) — have also risen considerably in the last half decade. The most recent data from StatCan shows that shelter costs rose 28.5% from 2020 to 2025.

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Current initiatives to tackle the cost of living crisis

The cost of living for one out of 10 Canadians is very difficult to navigate. Additionally, making predictions about the future costs of goods and services, and if wages will rise to meet these costs, is not a simple matter. But there are a number of initiatives aimed at helping Canadians tackle affordability challenges.

• Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit. A new program that is slated to roll out this July, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB) will replace the current GST/HST credit model and provide more financial support. Quarterly payments are expected to increase by 25% for the next five years starting in July, the Federal Government notes (9). Eligibility for the CGEB will be the same as the previous GST/HST credit requirements. The program is expected to provide additional financial support to over 12 million Canadians.
• Build Canada Homes. Announced in September of last year (10), Build Canada Homes is a new federal agency mandated to "build affordable housing at scale". By working with local municipalities, provinces, territories and Indigenous communities, the agency plans to increase the supply of affordable, community and transitional housing to reduce homelessness and shelter costs for vulnerable individuals (11).
• Automatic Tax Filing. As of last fall, the Liberal government began implementing an automatic tax filing system for low-income Canadians (12). Many residents in this tax bracket — such as those receiving government assistance benefits — don't file a return as they don't owe the government any taxes. However, this means that they miss out on key benefits like the GST/HST return (now the CGEB), Canada child benefit, Canada workers benefit and the Canadian disability benefit, to name a few. These can provide potentially thousands of dollars in financial assistance to eligible Canadians. The automatic filing system is expected to start enrolling approximately 1 million individuals with "simple tax situations" starting in 2027, going up to 2.5 million in 2028, and hitting 5.5 million low-income Canadians by 2029, CBC reported.

Not enough, some groups say

While these initiatives are admirable, some groups suggest Canada's government needs to be doing more. Charitable foundation Maytree states in a release that Canada is not on track to "achieve its 2030 poverty reduction target of reaching 50 per cent below 2015 levels (13)." The organization also notes how the country was making "significant progress" in reducing poverty prior to 2021.

But with the erosion of government benefits, a rising cost of living outpacing wage growth and a lack of "meaningful investment in new income supports," Maytree has concerns about how Canada will tackle this issue.