The annual Welfare in Canada report enumerates and examines the total welfare incomes of example households receiving social assistance in a given year and details some key features of social assistance programs, in all 13 provincial and territorial jurisdictions in Canada. As the only publicly available resource that compiles and analyses this data, Welfare in Canada is the primary source for evaluating Canada’s progress on fulfilling the human right to an adequate standard of living. (Canada signed on to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights on May 19, 1976, and the treaty entered into force in Canada on August 19 of that year. The Covenant commits all levels of government to the progressive realization, within the maximum available resources, of the right to an adequate standard of living for households receiving social assistance.)

The Welfare in Canada series was established by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy in 2012 to maintain and build on longitudinal data previously published by the National Council of Welfare in its Welfare Incomes reports. In 2018, Maytree assumed responsibility for updating the series and has added additional data and analysis over time.

In its review of total welfare incomes, the report looks at: 

• Variation and trends in the amounts and adequacy of welfare incomes across Canada,
• The proportion of total welfare incomes from provincial/territorial and federal sources, 
• The components of welfare incomes in each province and territory,
• Short- and long-term changes in the amounts of welfare incomes in each province and territory,
• The adequacy of welfare incomes in each jurisdiction compared to Canada’s Official Poverty Line and the Deep Income Poverty threshold and, where applicable, low-income thresholds commonly in use in Canada, and
• Long-term changes in the adequacy of welfare incomes.

In its examination of key features of social assistance programs, the report looks at: 

• The “needs test” for eligibility, including the amounts of assets, earned income, and unearned income households are allowed to retain while being eligible for social assistance in each province and territory, 
• Whether each jurisdiction’s social assistance benefits and other tax credits and benefits are indexed to inflation, 
• Whether cost of living and shelter benefits provided by social assistance programs are provided separately or as a combined benefit, and
• The basic benefits from provincial and territorial social assistance programs that are available to households who are unhoused and not paying for shelter. This section is new for 2024. 

More details about each of these sections of the report is in the Outline below. 

Outline of the report

The sections of the 2024 report are outlined below, with special features highlighted. 

Methodology

The report begins with detailing the methodology used to calculate total welfare incomes. The methodology includes assumptions made about the households we examine and the criteria for the inclusion of particular benefits in total welfare income calculations. It also includes information on how changes in total welfare incomes are calculated, the thresholds that are used to analyse adequacy, and how adequacy is calculated over time. As well, this section provides some important considerations about the ways in which adequacy for people with disabilities is calculated and about the Market Basket Measure, Canada’s Official Poverty Line. 

Total welfare incomes

The bulk of the report is made up of presentation and analysis of the total welfare incomes of our example households, both in an overview of Canada as a whole and for the individual provinces and territories. 

“Total welfare income” refers to the total amount of income a household receives from all government transfers, given that individuals and families who receive benefits from a social assistance program are also eligible for other forms of financial support from both the federal and provincial/territorial governments. 

Cross-Canada overview

This section presents a comprehensive picture of total welfare incomes across Canada with a high-level analysis, grouped by provinces and territories, that includes: 

• An overview of the amounts of total welfare incomes across Canada by household,
• An analysis of changes to welfare incomes from the previous year, 
• An overview of income adequacy relative to Canada’s poverty measures, 
• An analysis of income adequacy by household, and
• An analysis of the proportion of total welfare income from provincial/territorial and federal sources by household.

Provinces and territories

The cross-Canada overview is followed by an examination of total welfare incomes in each of the 13 subnational jurisdictions in Canada, in individual sections listed alphabetically. Given that the total welfare income that any household is eligible for depends on its specific composition, we present the welfare incomes of four example household types in each jurisdiction: 

• An unattached single who is considered employable, 
• An unattached single with a disability, 
• A single parent with one child aged two, and 
• A couple with two children aged 10 and 15. 

This applies to all provinces and territories except for Alberta and Manitoba, for which we include the incomes of five household types, and for Quebec, where the incomes of six household types are included. See the Overview section as well as each of these jurisdictions’ individual sections for more information.

For each jurisdiction, we present the maximum total income that these households would have received over the course of the calendar year, assuming each household had no other source of income and no assets. Note that some households may have received less than the amounts we have calculated if they had income from other sources, and some households may have received more if they had special health- or disability-related needs. 

Information about the specific components of total welfare incomes in each province and territory is also provided, as well as a look at both short- and long-term changes in total welfare amounts in each jurisdiction. 

We then analyze income adequacy in each jurisdiction by comparing each household’s total welfare income with Canada’s Official Poverty Line and the Deep Income Poverty threshold. This analysis is conducted not only for the year in question but also over time, allowing readers to assess whether the adequacy of total welfare incomes has improved or worsened for the example households in each jurisdiction. 

We also compare total welfare incomes in the provinces with two low-income measures currently in use in Canada: the Low Income Measure (LIM) and the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO). This analysis is not conducted for the territories, given that the LIM and LICO do not apply in the North. 

Key features of social assistance

Welfare in Canada also provides data and information about several key features of social assistance programs in each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories. 

Eligibility for social assistance: Assets and income: This section looks at the “needs test,” which is the primary determinant of eligibility for benefits. It outlines the amount of assets a household can have while still qualifying for social assistance, as well as how several forms of earned and unearned income impact a household’s eligibility and benefit amounts, as of the start of the calendar year. Changes made over the course of the year are noted.

The asset limits are for “liquid” assets, which includes cash on hand or in a bank account, and investments that can be readily converted to cash. Most “fixed” assets, such as a primary residence, primary vehicle, personal effects, and items needed for employment, are typically exempt from asset limits. 

“Earned income” exemptions refer to income from work or self-employment. The types of “unearned income” exemptions that are examined in this section relate to income from CPP/CPP-D, Employment Insurance, and provincial or territorial workers’ compensation programs. 

Indexation: This section provides information on whether the benefits and credits that are included in the total welfare income analysis are indexed to increase with inflation. Inflation indexing protects the value of a benefit from being eroded when the cost of living rises. This section also indicates whether any jurisdictions have newly indexed benefits or credits over the course of the calendar year. 

Cost-of-living and shelter benefit breakdown: This section indicates whether basic cost of living and shelter benefits are accounted for separately or together in one benefit amount, for the programs that apply to our example households. Understanding the structure of these benefits gives readers another way to understand adequacy, given that comparisons can be made between their constituent parts and the relevant costs of living, such as food and shelter. Details about the other benefits received by our example households are included in footnotes.

Shelter benefits for unhoused households: This section is new for the 2024 report and examines whether households who are eligible for social assistance but do not pay for shelter because they are effectively “street homeless” are eligible for the regular shelter benefits provided by each province and territory. It provides explanatory notes about the regulatory framework under which shelter benefits are provided, as well as the amounts of all basic social assistance benefits that unattached single households may be eligible for if they are housed vs unhoused. Specific jurisdictional information is included in footnotes.