End Poverty. Advance Rights. Improve Well-Being.

The story of poverty in Canada is one of persistent inequity and unmet Treaty and human rights obligations. While we have some programs in place that have proven to prevent and reduce poverty for some, our current responses are not an effective pathway to population-wide poverty eradication or equitable outcomes.

We need to write a new chapter on how we respond to poverty and inequity in Canada that meets our Treaty and human rights obligations.

We reject the false narratives that chronic poverty and inequity in Canada are inevitable, or that we don’t have the tools or resources available to eradicate them. We reject the false narratives that eradicating chronic poverty and inequity is optional, too expensive, or a matter of charity. We also reject the false narrative that people who live on low incomes have caused their own poverty.

Governments in Canada have a legal and moral obligation to create the conditions in which all people can access their right to an adequate standard of living.

This standard specifically includes economic, social, and cultural rights and obligations such as the prohibition of discrimination, the prioritization of the rights of marginalized groups, and the use of maximum available resources, targeted where they are most needed.

We call on the federal government to use all available resources and policy levers to urgently fulfil this obligation, including coordinating national standards and accountability. We offer our collective knowledge, expertise, and support in building the public and political will required to achieve this goal.

We the undersigned, call for the following evidence-based pathways to end chronic poverty and inequity and advance treaty and human rights and well-being:

1. Establish meaningful implementation and accountability mechanisms to progressively realize Treaty and human rights obligations. This must include meaningful engagement with people who are directly affected by poverty and discrimination.

2. Collect localized and disaggregated data related to income, food security, housing, and health that reflect people’s lived realities and our Treaty and human rights obligations, and use these to track progress toward closing inequitable gaps in well-being.

3. Generate needed revenue while addressing concentration of wealth through progressive taxation and regulatory controls.

4. Ensure that wages and income supports work together to lift people out of poverty, and implement mechanisms to protect buying power.

5. Invest in publicly funded, publicly delivered programs, services, and infrastructure using universal design and right-based policies and processes to measurably close equity gaps.

For a list of more specific policy recommendations, please view our briefing note here.