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3.2M Canadians, including over 560,000 children, living in poverty: Stats Canada – Global News

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Canada‘s poverty rate has fallen to a historic low in one of the sharpest three-year declines on record, the national statistics office says, but millions of Canadians still live below the poverty line.

Statistics Canada reported Monday that the national poverty rate dropped to 8.7 per cent in 2018 compared to 9.5 per cent a year earlier.

The child-poverty rate was little changed at 8.2 per cent. Still, the agency said 566,000 children lived in poverty compared to one million at a peak six years earlier.


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Liberals’ child benefit lifting children out of poverty, StatCan says

Even under potential changes to how the agency calculates the official poverty line, national rates have dropped.

Statistics Canada said its proposed new formula for calculating poverty would increase the rate by 2.3 percentage points and bump the number of Canadians considered to be living in poverty from just under 3.2 million to almost four million.

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“Irrespective of the measure you’re using, we’ve seen an improvement in people’s lives when it comes to poverty and it’s entirely a result of public policy,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, citing the federal government’s income-tested Canada Child Benefit as one example.






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Trudeau vows to continue investing in Canadian workers and families


Trudeau vows to continue investing in Canadian workers and families

Statistics Canada reported drops in monetary indicators of poverty — such as the number of people far below the poverty line, also known as “deep poverty.” But other measures, such as being able to afford housing and a set collection of healthy foods, moved in the opposite direction.

Social Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said federal programs need to take into account the circumstances of different Canadians.

“At the end of the day, it’s about the quality of life of Canadians. Are they able to be able to pay for the goods and services that make their life better, that they need to enjoy a modest living?” Hussen said at a morning event at a produce store in Ottawa.


READ MORE:
Child poverty rates go down in every province except Nova Scotia: StatCan

“We want to make sure our policies and our measures are removing more and more people out of poverty, which is what we are doing.”

The numbers showed no matter the formula used, poverty dropped by the more than 20 per cent the Liberal’s anti-poverty strategy called for by this year. The next key benchmark is a 50 per cent cut from 2015 levels by 2030.

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Miles Corak, who spent a year as the resident economist in Hussen’s department, said the government should set a “new, intermediate target” of cutting poverty rates by 20 per cent below 2018 levels.


READ MORE:
Food banks, bills and constant stress: What living in poverty really means in Canada

“If (the Liberal government) is serious about continuing ‘to move forward,’ then it should do this,” Corak, now an economics professor at City University of New York, wrote on Twitter.

The agency’s release of income numbers also included proposed changes to the poverty line. The “market basket measure,” as it’s known, calculates the minimum a person or family has to earn to afford a list of goods and services needed to reach a modest or basic living standard.

Statistics Canada proposed increasing the amount needed to afford housing in various parts of the country, adding cellphone costs to the formula, and rethinking transportation costs since some low-income earners use cars in urban centres.

The results would increase the low-income threshold in all regions: In Toronto, the threshold would rise $6,000 to $48,142; Vancouver, just over $8,000 to $48,677; and in Edmonton, almost $9,300 to $47,869. Raising the threshold would mean more people would be beneath it, and be counted as poor.






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The changes, particularly for housing, will provide a better understanding of poverty and more accurately capture the costs many low- and middle-income Canadians face, said Garima Talwar Kapoor, policy and research director at Maytree, an anti-poverty foundation.

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“This is really helpful, but now we really have to think of nuanced policy responses that take into account differences in geography and demographics in order to help further reduce the poverty rates,” she said.

© 2020 The Canadian Press

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A linebacker at West Virginia State is fatally shot on the eve of a game against his old school

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.

The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.

Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.

West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.

Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.

“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”

Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.

West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.

“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”

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AP college football: and

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Hall of Famer Joe Schmidt, who helped Detroit Lions win 2 NFL titles, dies at 92

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DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.

The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.

One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.

“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.

“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”

Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.

Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.

In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.

“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”

Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.

Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.

Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.

“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”

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Coastal GasLink fined $590K by B.C. environment office over pipeline build

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VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.

The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.

It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.

The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.

Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.

The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

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