Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Presentation to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
Introduction
We wish to thank the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities for its invitation to present this brief to members of the Canadian Parliament.
In recent years, the phenomenon of First Nations poverty has been widely publicized by the media. All this media attention, however, did not result in the adoption of concrete measures by the federal government to fight against First Nations poverty. We hope that after this meeting, it will be possible to establish a partnership between the First Nations and the federal government to tackle the problems of poverty, exclusion and marginalization faced by the First Peoples of Canada.Measuring First Nations Poverty
Neither Canada nor Quebec has an official poverty line. This also applies to the First Nations of Quebec and of Canada. There are, however, several indicators to measure poverty, generally in relative and not absolute terms. These indicators do not take into account the disparities in the cost of living according to the place of residence. (Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2009, p.19 of the French version). Measures such as the Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs) and the Low Income Measures (LIMs) provide indicators of poverty in relative terms. These relative measures show, however, the income inequalities within a given population (Government of Quebec, 2005, p. 11 of the French version).
The United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI) is currently the main indicator that is used by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) to measure the well-being of Aboriginal people in Canada. The HDI is a composite indicator that takes educational attainment, disposable income and life expectancy into account (Cooke et al., 2004, p.4). According to the HDI (2003), the First Nations of Canada ranked 78th in the world while Canada ranked 8th in the world. This indicator has the merit of showing the disparities that exist between the Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian population with respect to living conditions. However, it does not allow to measure poverty in the strict sense and we must resort to other indicators.
Within the framework of its work, the Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Poverty and Social Exclusion decided to use the Market Basket Measure (MBM) developed by the Human Resources Development Canada. Here is how the MBM defines a person in low income: “a person whose disposable income is lower than the cost of the goods and services included in a consumer basket covering a range of needs and providing a standard of living that the designers of the measures described as ‘honourable’” [Translation] (Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2009, p.20 of the French version). The cost of this basket is adjusted according of the individual’s place of residence.
The MBM has the merit of taking into account the real cost of living in a region or community that is located far from large urban centres. A study conducted in Quebec shows that the cost of living is clearly higher in “isolated” regions (Duhaime, 2006). Social assistance benefits are not weighted to reflect this reality, which generally results in impoverishment that is more pronounced in remote areas. Use of the MBM in First Nations communities would allow to measure the income required to cover basic needs. The resulting adjustment of social assistance benefits could also help to improve the disposable incomes of First Nations who live far from urban centres and outside transportation and supply networks.
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