Latest Data Has 22.9% of the Population of Canada Living With Some Form of Food Insecurity
Brand new survey results from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey Interview (conducted from January to June 2023) has revealed that 22.9%, or 8.7 million, Canadians reported some form of insecurity in the previous 12 months.
This has exploded upwards by 1.8 million people from the previous year’s survey results.
What is “Food Insecurity”?
Statistics Canada considers a household “food insecure” if they fall into one of the following three categories:
- Marginal food insecurity: Worry about running out of food and/or limited food selection due to a lack of money for food.
- Moderate food insecurity: Compromise in quality and/or quantity of food due to a lack of money for food.
- Severe food insecurity: Miss meals, reduce food intake and, at the most extreme, go day(s) without food.
One Parent Families Struggling
The survey also revealed that 43.4% of one parent families reported some form food insecurity within the previous 12 months, and that 22.6% of one parent families were also below the poverty line in 2022, back to pre-pandemic highs.
Lone parent families are now 4 times more likely to live in poverty than are coupled families.
Unattached Individuals are Nearly Four Times More Likely to Experience Poverty
Being single in Canada is tough — the data highlights that single Canadians are now four times more likely to live below the poverty line than are their coupled counterparts.
A shocking 26% of single Canadians now live below the poverty line.
Similarly, single senior citizens reported a 13.8% poverty rate, back to pre-pandemic levels.
According to Statistics Canada, a household lives in poverty if they cannot afford the cost of a specific basket of basic goods and services in their community, after adjusting for family size.
Childhood Poverty Explodes Upwards
Not only did singles and seniors see set-backs, the poverty rate of children under 18 years old increased by 3.5% (+35% in proportional terms) to 9.9% in 2022 vs. 2021.
This number is comparable to the pre pandemic high of 9.4%.
So, What Happened here? The Government Turned Off the Taps
Statistics Canada claims that almost all of this drop in income can be attributed to the reduction in government transfers (i.e. CERB) as pandemic benefits ended in 2022.
In fact, the average Canadian family lost $4,100 in government benefits in 2022.
Not only that, but the government has been actively seeking to have excess CRB payouts returned to them.
They slammed the spending brakes on so hard that a typical Canadian’s median income dropped in 2022 vs 2021.
Overall, the median after-tax income of Canadian families and unattached individuals actually dropped to $70,500 in 2022— down of $2,500 compared with 2021. (-3.1%)
