Poverty in Canada

Poverty in Canada is rising and it needs to stop now! According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development or the OECD the poverty rate in Canada has been on a steady rise in the mid 1900’s until the late 2000’s. The two most affected types of people are children at 38 percent and aboriginal or First Nations people at 11 percent. The rest of the population stands at 4.3 percent on the scale of poverty in Canada said Food Banks Canada. There are tons of reasons why poverty is rising and why people are living in poverty, like drug or alcohol addiction. There are many more reasons why the poverty rates are so high, a recent poll indicated that 51 percent of people living in poverty are not in control of the reason why they are poverty, 11 percent of people do not know why or unsure of why people live in poverty and 37 percent of people say that people living in poverty aren’t doing enough to help themselves. There are also a lot of ways to help stop poverty or help the people who are living in poverty, for example make a video about it and help make people aware that poverty in constantly around them. Another way to help people living in poverty is by volunteering at a food bank like the Salvation Army. Poverty is all over the world but as Canadians we are concerned and should help make a change and stop the rise of poverty in Canada. (Tapscott & Officer)

Poverty effects 1 in every 5 children or 13 percent of children in Canada this was proven by a recent survey done by UNICEF. Child poverty in Canada ranks fifteenth out of seventeen countries or 4 percent higher than all other seventeen countries. Child poverty raises the cost of health care and the chances of crime happening in communities, 7.6 millio...

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...er the age of 18 live in low income houses. Households like these use food stamps and contribute to the 872, 379 Canadians who use food banks and shelters each month, that is 900,000 assisted by food banks alone each year in Canada. Since 2008 the rates of low income or poverty stricken people using food banks has gone up 23 percent. Lone parent or low income families pay 30 percent of their income toward housing and shelter for their families. Aboriginal people make 30 percent less than all other Canadians which make it extremely hard for them to afford shelter, food, clean water and support themselves and their families. The gap between “rich” and “poor” is 21 years; this means that 3.3 million people are overpaying for housing each year, this also causes dept. levels to increase by 163.4 percent which means that for every $1.00 you own you are in dept. $1.63.