The report contains information on the actual spending patterns of Canadians and examples of several possible ways of drawing market basket poverty lines. It also urges governments to do extensive consultations of their own, especially among poor people and anti-poverty groups. The National Council of Welfare will publish the results of its readership survey later in the year. The Council is a citizens' advisory group to the federal Minister of Human Resources Development. Its mandate in federal law is to advise the Minister of matters of concern to poor people.
All poverty lines are relative.
All poverty lines are arbitrary. Poverty lines are a research tool for measuring the incomes of groups of people, not a measure of individual need. Some poverty lines are better than others, but none of them is perfect.