Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy.

This Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy sets a bold vision for Canada as a world leader in the eradication of poverty: a vision for a Canada without poverty. The specific vision of Opportunity for All is to eradicate poverty because we are all better off when no one is left behind. Opportunity for All supports a human rights-based approach to poverty reduction, reflecting principles that include universality, non-discrimination and equality, participation of those living in poverty, accountability and working together. This is done by consulting people with lived experience of poverty in the development and implementation of the Strategy, establishing measurable targets and timelines, ensuring accountability through an independent National Advisory Council on Poverty and proposing legislation to ensure poverty reduction remains a priority well into the future.
For the first time in country’s history, the Government will set an official measure of poverty. Canada’s Official Poverty Line will be calculated using what is currently known as the Market Basket Measure; Canada’s Official Poverty Line reflects the combined costs of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet their basic needs and achieve a modest standard of living. The basket includes items such as healthy food, appropriate shelter and home maintenance, and clothing and transportation. It also includes other goods and services that permit engagement in the community, particularly for children, youth, parents and seniors.
The Opportunity for All is a whole-of-government strategy that involves actions and investments that span across the federal government. However, the Government recognizes that to be successful, it cannot act alone. Partnerships will be important. The Government will work closely with provinces, territories and municipalities, and will forge strong bonds with Indigenous peoples, stakeholders, charities and community groups on the front lines of tackling poverty in communities across Canada, to ensure our programs and policies are aligned and complementary, as Canadians expect and deserve nothing less. And, finally, the Government will continue to reach out to all Canadians who all have a stake in Opportunity for All, particularly those who live in poverty. Opportunity for All also sets the foundation for future government investments in poverty reduction. It is based on three pillars to focus government actions to reduce poverty: Dignity: Lifting Canadians out of poverty by ensuring basic needs, such as safe and affordable housing, healthy food and health care; Opportunity and Inclusion: Helping Canadians join the middle class by promoting full participation in society and equality of opportunity; and Resilience and Security: Supporting the middle class by protecting Canadians from falling into poverty and by supporting income security and resilience. Opportunity for All offers a bold vision for Canada as a world leader in the eradication of poverty, with progress validated in terms of its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty. For the first time in Canada’s history, the Strategy sets an official measure of poverty: Canada’s Official Poverty Line, based on the cost of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet their basic needs and achieve a modest standard of living in communities across the country. Opportunity for All sets, for the first time, ambitious and concrete poverty reduction targets: a 20 percent reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50 percent reduction in poverty by 2030, which, relative to 2015 levels, will lead to the lowest poverty rate in Canada’s history.