MONTREAL -- The authors of a study published Wednesday calculated that to live with dignity in Quebec, a single person in 2021 would need an annual income of between $24,433 and $32,607, depending on the community where he or she lives.
The seventh annual study on the subject published by the Institut de recherche et d'informations socioeconomiques (IRIS) establishes a sustainable income, which is an amount available after taxes that allows a person to live with dignity outside of poverty, including for unforeseen events.
The sustainable income was calculated for three types of households and seven Quebec municipalities in order to reflect the different realities.
For example, for a single-parent household with one child attending an early childhood centre (CPE), the sustainable income varies from $36,121 in Trois-Rivieres to $44,631 in Sept-Iles.
It was set at $39,387 in Quebec City and $39,999 in Montreal.
For a household of two adults and two children attending a CPE, this sustainable income was established at $58,514 in Trois-Rivières to $68,387 in Sept-Iles. It is $61,046 in Quebec City and $61,884 in Montreal.
IRIS researcher Philippe Hurteau points out that in Montreal, for example, for a single person, the sustainable income is equivalent to nearly 1.3 times the threshold of Statistics Canada's Market Basket Measure (MBM), which is commonly used and assumes an hourly wage of at least $18 full-time.
He points out that the MBM only covers basic needs, whereas a sustainable income is an indicator of a standard of living free of poverty.
Among the living situations that fall below the sustainable income, the IRIS study mentions people aged 65 and over who only have access to the state's minimum income guarantees, recipients of last-resort assistance programs such as social assistance and also people who work full-time and earn the minimum wage.
Hurteau pointed out that while there is a tendency to believe that a job is enough to get out of poverty, the economy has created a category of working poor.
In calculating sustainable income, he noted the importance of affordable and responsive public transportation services in reducing household expenditures. The absence or inadequacy of public transit in a municipality forces households to purchase a car, increasing the sustainable income required to meet their needs by $6,000 or more.
This amount explains much of the regional disparities, according to Hurteau.
IRIS also found that people on social assistance are far from aspiring to a sustainable income. They live on less than half of the basic needs coverage threshold according to the MBM as calculated since 2018.
The researcher said the Quebec government is in default of the commitment it made in 2017 to provide them with a disposable income equal to 55.1 per cent of the GPA.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2021.
