Basic needs poverty lines are intended to measure the number and proportion of Canadians who cannot afford the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, shelter, and other household essentials. Since 1992, this measure has been an important alternative to prevailing relative poverty lines like Statistics Canada's Low Income Cutoff (LICO) that considers how well off some Canadians are relative to others. This Fraser Alert uses the most recent data available (2004) to update the basic needs poverty lines and estimates poverty in Canada. the findings are encouraging: poverty in Canada, including child poverty, has fallen dramatically since 1951 and, notably, has continued to decline recently after leveling off during the 1980s and early 1990s.
