The Cost of Poverty in Manitoba - Molly McCracken and Charles Plante

Land Acknowledgement The opinions and recommendations in this report, and any errors, are those of the author, The CCPA Manitoba publishes research on the and do not necessarily reflect the views of the original lands of the Anishinaabe, Anisininew, publishers or funders of this report. [...] In 2021, the child poverty rate in Manitoba was 39 percent in the north and 30 percent in Winnipeg’s inner city; Manitoba has had the The Cost of Poverty in Manitoba 5 highest poverty rates, or close to the highest rates, for decades (Campaign 2000, 2022). [...] The total number of individuals living in poverty is used to calculate remedial costs, while the number of working-aged individuals living in poverty is used for the opportunity cost and the number of children living in poverty for the intergenerational cost. [...] In effect, the method attempts to answer the question, “How much would society save if the living standard of the poor were raised to those of the second income quintile?” The cost of poverty tends to be higher or lower if we use alternative poverty indicators to the official measure, such as the Low-income Measure (LIM) or the Low-Income Cut-off (LICO). [...] Previously, in response to anti- poverty activism in the “Have a Heart, Raise the Rates” campaign of Right to Housing and Make Poverty History in 2012–2014, the Manitoba government created Rent Assist, a portable benefit in Manitoba that fixes the benefit for people on social assistance to 75 percent of the Median Market Rent (Brandon and Hajer, 2019; CMHC).