Study Finds Poverty in Canada Not Linked to Race
A recent study suggests that poverty in Canada is not correlated with race, and government programs targeting race-based poverty are ineffective.
“The majority of impoverished individuals in Canada are ‘white,’ making them ineligible for race-based assistance from governments if immutable traits such as skin color or ethnicity are considered in policy,” stated authors Matthew Lau and David Hunt in a press release.
According to Statistics Canada data referenced by Mr. Lau and Mr. Hunt, the vast majority of Canadians living in poverty come from “white” backgrounds—or what Statistics Canada categorizes as “not a visible minority nor Indigenous.”
When examining after-tax income, the report indicates that “white” Canadians constitute 64.4 percent of those in relative poverty, with other notable groups being 7.5 percent Chinese, 5.8 percent Black, and 5.5 percent South Asian.
“Systemic racism is not the root cause of poverty in Canada,” emphasized Mr. Lau in a statement from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.
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“While certain visible minority groups are overrepresented in poverty statistics, there are also visible minority groups less prone to poverty, such as individuals of Filipino, South Asian, and Latin American descent,” stated Mr. Lau.
Government Anti-Poverty Funding Based on Race
The authors of the report criticized government policies that attempt to assist individuals from “marginalized” communities, citing Ontario’s Racialized and Indigenous Supports for Entrepreneurs (RAISE) Grant Program as an example.
“This assistance would be inaccessible to 64 percent of low-income individuals, and among those qualified based on race, only 11.9 percent are low-income. This approach to designing an anti-poverty program is not practical,” they argued.
Steps to Success
The report highlights a success sequence to evade poverty, which includes completing high school, working full-time, and marrying before having children.
“In Canada, 99 percent of adults who have followed the success sequence are not impoverished today,” the authors noted. “Clearly, one’s racial background is not a determining factor in Canadian poverty.”
They concluded that policy measures should strengthen the success sequence to prevent poverty and recommended that government initiatives assist all individuals in poverty, irrespective of race.
According to the PBO report, there has been a 20 percent increase in homelessness since 2018, and a 38 percent increase in “chronically homeless” individuals.
Food Banks Canada graded the federal government poorly for its poverty reduction efforts, with one in four individuals facing food insecurity, as reported by the organization’s CEO Kirstin Beardsley. Food bank visits have surged by 50 percent since 2021.
Doug Lett contributed to this report.
