Prior to Confederation,
English Poor Laws were only in effect in the Maritime colonies. While charities and churches took some responsibility for the poor, many people "ended up in houses of refuge, mental institutions, or prisons." The 1940 "Report" of the
Rowell–Sirois Commission described the economy of rural Canada in the 1860s, when just under half the labor force was in farming. It stated:" The farm household in Upper Canada [Ontario] was still a basically self-sufficient unit. Food was grown and processed at home. The raw products of the farm were turned into articles of wear with the assistance of the local shoemaker and tailor who would take produce in return for their services. Such necessaries as tea, sugar, hardware and certain articles of clothing which could not be produced at home were generally obtained by barter from the local general store. Tallow was turned into candles, fatty refuse into soap, and the tools which were beyond the ingenuity of the farm workshop could generally be contrived by the local blacksmith. What was true of the Upper Canada farm was even more true of the agricultural communities in Lower Canada [Quebec] and the Maritimes, where such things as furniture, carts, and carriages were frequently made on the farm. The farm of the period was a miniature factory or combination of factories. Much of the work of the large industrial army of today, concentrated in highly specialized factories in the cities and towns was, in that early period, performed in a multitude of rural households. However prices might fall and cash income from other sources might melt away, the farm household always produced enough to prevent abject poverty. This fact had its importance for other industries as well. The farm was often a base of operations, on which individuals could fall back when other projects and occupations ended in disaster. In the Maritimes, agriculture, fishing and lumbering were closely allied. Everywhere the family and its relatives were a close economic unit; the various members helped one another when new enterprises were started or old ones failed. The material basis for this mutual welfare association was the family farm. The
British North America Act 1867 established
Canada as a self-governing country and led to the creation of the 1876
Indian Act, the primary document which governs how the
Canadian state interacts with the First Nations. Throughout its long history the Indian Act has been an ongoing source of controversy. The provisions of Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, provided Canada's federal government exclusive authority to legislate in relation to "Indians and Lands Reserved for Indians". The Indian Act, its corresponding federal policies and funding mechanisms, has been blamed for the extreme poverty experienced by First Nations in Canada since its inception. By 1900, the number of unemployed urban poor had increased, in pace with urbanization and industrialization in the late Victorian period. Faced with lack of jobs, lay-offs, and economic cycles, one in seven Canadian families were unable to survive on pooled wages. Wages did not increase until the post-war period in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the
Great Depression caused an increase in unemployment and poverty. In October 1935, Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King introduced a new era in which he sought to banish "poverty and adversity, want and misery" from Canada. His commitment to help the underprivileged was similar to that of the American President
Franklin D. Roosevelt with his
New Deal. Mackenzie King introduced a wide range of New Deal-like reforms, including the 1937 Federal Home Improvement Plan, which provided subsidized rates of interest, and the 1938 National Housing Act that supported low-rent housing. He also introduced compulsory contributions for pensions in 1939 and subsidies for farmers in 1940. The UK's influential
Beveridge Report of 1942 and its Canadian counterpart, commissioned by Mackenzie King—the 1943
Report on Social Security for Canada by
Leonard Marsh—called for the creation of a postwar welfare state, a comprehensive system of social security with full employment that would ultimately end all poverty. Both these reports reflected
Keynesian economics—the major economic theory of the postwar period.
The Marsh Report recommended a broad range of social assistance, social insurance and public welfare programs. In 1944, Mackenzie King introduced the Family Allowance program, which was the first universal social welfare program in Canada. During
World War II, a small unemployment insurance program was introduced. In 1951, after eliminating the effects of price change, this percentage fell to 20%. For three decades following WWII, Canada's strong economy facilitated the introduction and expansion of social programs. By 1951, the number of people living in poverty has become a minority. By 1961, only 15% of Canadians lived in poverty. In 1966, the
Canada Pension Plan and
Quebec Pension Plan came into effect. The 1968
Economic Council of Canada (ECC) report said that 27% of Canadians lived in poverty. A Senate inquiry estimated that as many as 1 in 4 Canadians were living in poverty in 1969. After World War II, with more Canadians were living in urban areas, and by 1967, low income had increasingly become an urban problem. which "brought poverty out of the shadows." The Croll report "reiterated much of what had been revealed in the ECC's report and proposed a guaranteed annual income program to eliminate poverty in Canada". In addition, the percentage of families living in poverty fell to 13.9% by 1982. According to one estimate, the percentage of Canadian families living in poverty fell steadily during he 1970s; from 17.7% in 1969 to 9.8% in 1979. According to another estimate, the percentage of people living below the poverty line stood at 19.5% in 1968, and fell to below 10% in 1978. Against the backdrop of the
early 1980s recession, which affected much of the developed world in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and left Canada with weaker economic growth and inflation, Prime Minister
Pierre Elliot Trudeau introduced a series of unpopular budgets. The
Bank of Canada described Canadians experiencing a "deeply troubling air of uncertainty and anxiety" about the economy. In his last term in office, Trudeau expanded government support for Canada's poorest citizens. In Western countries, unemployment increased from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, partly because of two oil shocks that caused the price of oil to rise, a decline in birthrates, increased competition from Asia and Latin America—whose economies were emerging, and the automation of jobs. As corporations saw a loss of profits with a militant labour movement winning wage settlements, Canada followed in the steps of the US, and introduced statutory wage and price controls in 1975. He introduced legislation to balance the budget. the council's director and founder of
Caledon Institute of Social Policy, and submitted to the Macdonald Commission, was considered to be one of the most complete reports on poverty in Canada at that time. In 1997, Canada did not have an official poverty measurement. In 2003, the
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called on Canada to "expand protection in human rights legislation ... to protect poor people ... from discrimination because of social or economic status" The report noted the "persistence of poverty" in Canada, particularly for vulnerable groups. By 2008, Senator Eggleton tabled the Senate Committees's report on "Poverty, Housing And Homelessness: Issues And Options", saying that the phenomena and the understanding of poverty, housing and homelessness had become more complex since 1971, when the Croll report was tabled. Poverty, housing and homelessness continued to be "as grave a challenge" in 2008 as in 1971. In 2013, Canada's high poverty rate ranked among the worst of 17 high income countries with 12.1% living in poverty. Canada's child poverty rate was 15.1% compared to 12.8% in the mid-1990s. Only the United States ranked lower. An April 29, 2014 Administrators Colloquium organized by the Canada School of Public Service noted that there was a shift in research from poverty in Canada to examinations of
income inequality, for example in the Standing Committee on Finance's December 2013 report. the relative poverty rate for children and youth in Canada was higher than the OECD average. According to the 2019 report, the elderly had the "lowest poverty rate amongst all age-groups in Canada." The relative poverty rates for the elderly population was lower than average compared to other OECD countries. == Child poverty in Canada ==