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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Op/Ed : Audience Opinions |
Should the Low Income Cutoffs (LICO) be replaced with a Market-Basket Measure to define who's poor in Canada?Traditionally, social agencies and governments have used Statistics Canada's LICO. Anyone below the cutoff is said to be spending disproportionate amounts of money on food, shelter and clothing. StatsCan has always argued that LICO should not be used as a true measure of poverty.
The Fraser Institute argues that LICO-based poverty lines exaggerate the level of poverty in the country because they are relative measures that aren't connected to basic requirements. Fraser Institute researchers opt for a market basket measure that considers what it costs to buy basic necessities: a nutritious diet, shelter, clothing, personal hygiene needs, health care, transportation and telephone.
Is either of these measures an adequate way to define poverty? Which one should we be using? If neither, what are your suggestions for a new approach?
I work in health promotion and have been involved in various efforts to address well-being from a "determinants of health" perspective (including heart health project, healthy babies, thrifty nutritious food basket etc.) It seems to me that there is a certain level of accessibility that has to be assumed when others decide what items constitute necessities. For example, there is a higher level of skill (and perhaps knowledge around complimentary proteins and meat substitutes) involved in preparing nutritious, low-cost meals "from scratch" as opposed to out of tins, bottles and freezer packages. There is also a inexhaustable variety of hygiene products on the market which widely in price. Sometimes what is the most "thrifty" is not the most accessible because less is spent advertising its virtues to the public, and less space is afforded the product on pharmacy shelves.If you were to research the most nutritious low-cost food (i.e.: oatmeal, kidney beans, squash, canned tomatoes etc.), how can you be sure that your estimations for Market-basket measures will be applicable when you are competing with fruit-loops, frozen prepared entrees and meat. I don't know exactly what your research processes are intended to be, but we need to keep issues of accessibility front and centre when we tinker with a moving target like the poverty line.
-- Laura Dickson
"Market basket" theory to evaluate poverty is used in the US and studies have shown that it is unreliable in that it leaves out important issues that marginalized people face-such as lack of accessible healthcare, below health and safety standard housing conditions that go unreported.-- Terry Harber,Community Worker
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