StatsCan data for 2017 shows poverty is declining especially for children

The number of Canadians living below the poverty line has never been lower,new numbers from Statistics Canada suggest.

The data agency released its Canadian Income Survey for 2017 on Tuesday, a tally of how Canadians from different demographic groups were doing that yearcompared to how they were doing in previous years.

Overall, the median income, after taxes, for Canadian families rose by3.3 per centto $59,800. That figure comes on the heels of two years of flat growth.

While a rising tide seems to be raising all boats, that's not to suggest that some people still aren't dipping below the surface.In2017,3.4million Canadians, or9.5per cent of the population, lived below the poverty line, down slightly from 10.6 per cent the previous year.

The definition of the poverty line is something of a moving target. Last year, Ottawa established a new definition of the poverty line, which from now on will be calculated as the Market Basket Measure or MBM.

By the MBM's math, the government considerssomeone as being below the official poverty linewhen they are unable to pay for a specific basket of goods and services in their community things such as healthy food, appropriate shelter and home maintenance,clothing and transportation, and access to other services and activities that allow them to engage in their community.

While fewer Canadians overall are now living below what the government deems to be below the poverty line, not all demographic groups are moving up at the same speed. The number of children living below it has fallen precipitously in recent years. In 2017,622,000 children nine per cent of all children were living below the poverty line.

In 2016, the figure was755,000children, or 11 per cent of all of them. In 2015, it was 900,000. The proportion peaked in 2012 when 15 per cent were officially considered poor more than a million children.

The data agency noted that 2017 was the first full year in which Ottawa distributed the Canada Child Benefit, a government program that allowsany family with a child to receive up to $6,400per child under the age of six, and$5,400per child aged sixthrough 17. The CCB replaced previous child-focused government programs including the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the Universal Child Care Benefit and income splitting.

Think-tank The Fraser Institute, which promotes free market solutions in policy discussions,hascriticized the CCB for being a program that"fosters dependence on government," and"not a policy that rewards hard work by allowing Canadians to keep more of what they earn."

Fewer seniors living in poverty

Other demographic groups are, in the aggregate, also rising out of poverty, but not as quickly as children are.

In 2017, just238,000 Canadian seniors were living below the poverty line, just 3.9 per cent of the total population, and a reduction of more than 16 per cent from the 2016level.

But the 2017 figure is actually higher than it was in 2013, at 219,000 people or 4.2 per cent of Canada's senior population at the time.

Incomes for seniors, however, are inching higher. Themedian after-tax income of a Canadian family where the main income earner was at least 65 years old was $61,200in2017, up $2,500from2016.

Across all age groups, incomes rose at different levels across the country.Albertans had the highest median after-tax income in2017, at $70,300, a figure that declined by $1,000 from 2016's level. Nova Scotia had the lowest, at $50,200. Incomes rose in British Columbia,Quebecand Ontario by 7.6, 4.2 and fourper cent, respectively.

There was little change among the other provinces, the data agency said.