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Poverty has a significant cost for governments. The
federal and Ontario government are losing at least $10.4 billion to $13.1
billion a year due to poverty.
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Poverty has a cost for every household in Ontario. In real
terms, poverty costs every household in the province from $2,299 to $2,895
every year.
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Poverty has a very significant total economic cost in Ontario. The total
cost of poverty in Ontario is equal to 5.5 to 6.6 per cent of Ontario’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)
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The remedial costs of poverty related to health care and crime are
substantial. In Ontario, poverty-induced costs related to health care
have an annual public cost of $2.9 billion.
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The annual cost of child or intergenerational poverty is very
high. If child poverty were eliminated, the extra income tax revenues
nationally would be between $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion.
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Opportunity costs or lost productivity due to poverty has a great
economic cost. Federal and provincial governments across Canada lose between $8.6
billion and $13 billion in income tax revenue to poverty every year.
