The position of Statistics Canada with respect to poverty.... The term “poverty” and the measure of poverty was well articulated by our chief statistician in 1997 when he said that Statistics Canada doesn't measure poverty per se, it measures low income. Poverty is a question of social consensus, and it requires guidance from the government to identify what it is they want measured and how Statistics Canada should measure it. Given that, and given the wide usage of low-income statistics in the media and academic publications, the main measures that Statistics Canada uses that reflect on the situation of poverty would be like the income ones that I showed you today.
We do have other indicators of disadvantaged situations that could also be very useful and illuminating. Some of these were developed with other federal departments. For example, there's the market basket measure, which prices out the cost of a number of goods deemed to be necessary for participation in society from year to year. The price of that basket of goods can be used to determine a threshold. Some 40 or so different thresholds were created for different regions of Canada. I should mention that this is in sponsorship with Employment and Social Development Canada.
With CMHC, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, we also have a core housing need measure that integrates elements of housing. We also have a food security measure, which is developed with Health Canada to reflect on some of the different elements of nutrition and having enough food to eat.
Finally, I'd mentioned that Statistics Canada has for the Ontario government and for the federal government conducted indicators of a type of low-income measure called “material deprivation”. That's also another way, and a non-monetary indicator, that can be used to track whether or not Canadians have access to different goods and services that are deemed necessary.