The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 2000 is a valuable resource for keeping up-to-date with data on poverty and how it affects the country’s economy and social fabric. The many debilitating effects of poverty on child development and adult well-being are well documented. This edition also includes poverty data from the 1996 Census concerning visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities. There is an expanded section on the working poor and market poverty, as well as a discussion of efforts to combine three dimensions of poverty – incidence, depth and duration – into one measure. By providing a better understanding of poverty in Canada, the Council hopes its report will also contribute to the formulation of anti-poverty policies.
