Income and Material Security
Incomes reflect the cost of living. People have the ability to pay all their bills, meet all their basic needs, avoid living paycheque to paycheque, and are able to thrive.
“Everybody in this room doesn’t even have a savings account. It doesn’t exist for people in poverty. It does not exist. Because we live from month to month, check to check, and we have for all our lives.” -Whitehorse, YK
“I for sure can’t live one month off of that. Not at these prices in the Yukon. And yet though, how is that possible, if you’re on disability that you are less than.” -Whitehorse, YK
“I just find it hard to live. People on social assistance find it hard to live.” -Whitehorse, YK
“The government does not understand why rural communities such as ours are struggling. Well, the prices of our groceries, our necessities, our gasoline, our diesel, our house fuel, our electricity are way more expensive than any others.” -Carcross, YK
“You can’t live off what they give you. You never could. You’re taking from one bill to pay another.” -Halifax, NS
“I am technically not in low income. So I can’t get dental for myself, my son. I can’t access any of the communal supports. But my housing, because they don’t have a rental cap in this province, is eating up 65 percent of my income.” -Calgary, AB
“A community where people from all walks of life have a decent home, food and well-paying jobs to sustain themselves.” -Toronto, ON
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
---|---|---|
Being able to meet your basic needs | Census Family Low Income Measure After Tax; Percentage of persons living in households by level of difficulty in meeting their financial needs in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing, and other necessary expenses; Proportion of individuals who have access to the Internet at home | Statistics Canada, T1 Family File; Canada Quality of Life Framework, Canadian Social Survey Table 45-10-0086-01 and Canadian Housing Survey Table 43-10-0058-01; Canadian Internet Use Survey Table 22-10-0134-01 |
Being able to pay all your bills | Percentage of Canadians struggling to make bill payments or manage cash flow over the past 12 months | Statistics Canada, Canadian Financial Capability Survey |
Income and benefits reflect the cost of living and increase with inflation | Community Living Wage; Proxy: Adequacy of welfare incomes (compared to poverty measures); Consumer Price Index compared to minimum wage, social assistance, pensions, and other benefits | Canadian Living Wage Framework; Maytree Welfare in Canada |
Freedom from worry about money and feeling the trauma of poverty | Perceived impact of economic conditions on mental health | Mental Health Research Canada |
Cost of living is equitable across the country | Consumer Price Index | Statistics Canada Consumer Prince Index Portal |
Freedom from living paycheque to paycheque | Proportion of individuals in households who have enough savings to maintain well-being for three months (Asset resilience) | Canadian Indicator Framework and Canada Quality of Life Framework, Survey of Financial Security Table 11-10-0082-01, CIF 1.2.1 |
Freedom from debt | Percentage of Canadians who have some type of outstanding debt | Statistics Canada, Canadian Financial Capability Survey |
Being able to save money | Proxy: Percentage of Canadians who have monthly spending that exceeds their income | Statistics Canada, Canadian Financial Capability Survey |
Having disposable income | Proxy: Percentage of Canadians who have monthly spending that exceeds their income | Statistics Canada, Canadian Financial Capability Survey |
Your survival is not tied to income and neither are tied to work | Recommendation: Percentage of people who feel like they don’t have to make money or work to survive | Gap |
Recommendation: existing indicator and data source partially fulfill the measure.
Gap: gap for data source where it does not exist.
Magenta: existing indicator in Canadian Indicator Framework