Strong and adequate income security programs are critical towards ensuring that everyone in Canada can realize their human right to an adequate standard of living. About 2.8 million people across Canada live in poverty, unable to afford the basic necessities people need to live a life with dignity. Canada’s income security systems are rooted in dated ideas about the labour market, the cost of living, and who is deserving of support.
Our work on income security includes mapping current income security programs that are intended to promote opportunity and provide a social safety net, and understanding where those systems are working well, where they are under pressure, and how we can strengthen them so that everyone in Canada can realize their human right to an adequate standard of living. We use research to identify policy solutions and convene conversations to improve our social safety net.
Featured income security publications
To address poverty, the federal government must first deal with the budgetary elephant in the room
The federal government’s plan to dramatically increase defence spending to meet NATO targets creates a “budgetary elephant in the room” that threatens Canada’s ability to address rising poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity.
Poverty rising: How Ontario’s strategy failed and what must come next
Ontario’s poverty reduction efforts are failing. Poverty has risen above pre-pandemic levels, and reliance on employment alone isn’t working. But the province has an opportunity to change direction with the next Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Why income support is good housing policy: A new case for a permanent housing benefit in Canada
Canada’s housing crisis has forced more families into homelessness and poverty as rising rents outpace incomes. This report argues that income security is housing policy. It advocates for a permanent housing benefit that is simple, predictable, and easy-to-access to provide immediate rent support to low-income families.
Explore income security publications
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To address poverty, the federal government must first deal with the budgetary elephant in the room
How to address the deep poverty of people receiving social assistance
Underserved: Ontario’s employment services are failing those in greatest need
Nation-building must include social infrastructure
