Joint Letter to Prime Minister: The United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
October 16, 2026
October 17th is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. To raise awareness of Canada’s commitments to poverty eradication, equity and human rights, Campaign 2000, in collaboration with Oxfam Canada and the Canadian Network for Equity and Racial Justice (CNERJ), has written a joint letter to the Prime Minister and Minister Hadju.
The letter addresses the commitments that Canada has made to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, poverty. Outlining recent endorsements such as the Doha Political Declaration at the Second World Summit for Social Development in November of 2025.
Furthermore, the letter addresses the progress towards the goal of poverty elimination. While there was some progress, the poverty rate is on the rise again. Today more than 1 in 10 Canadians (11%) live in poverty. Marginalized groups had disproportionately higher poverty rates: 17.9% of Indigenous People and 15.5% of racialized people. The poverty rate for children has also more than doubled, now at 11.5%. Almost 1 in 3 children that grew up in a lone-parent family where the parent was a woman or gender diverse person lived in poverty.
While Canada is on the right track with the investment’s the government has made, the erosion of progress highlights that not enough is being done. Together with Oxfam Canada and CNERJ, Campaign 2000 has provided three recommendations:
- Strengthen income security by ensuring federal benefits and income supports are adequate, accessible, and sufficient to meet basic needs, so that no one in Canada is left living in poverty.
- Address systemic barriers to economic security by strengthening employment equity, ensuring decent work and fair wages, and tackling racial, gender and other inequalities that disproportionately expose marginalized communities to poverty.
- Make essential needs and services affordable for everyone by investing in affordable housing, public health care, child care and other essential public services funded by a fairer tax system that reduces inequality.
To read the letter, please click here.