A Beacon In the Storm

Reflections on the work of the cpi in 2025

Without a doubt, 2025 was a difficult year for many Canadians. After falling steadily for many years, poverty rates again continued to climb. The challenge of finding affordable housing deepened, with an estimated 67,000 people being homeless on any given night. Meanwhile, 2.2 million people relied on a food bank, the highest number ever recorded. Finding decent work was a further challenge contributing to the financial burden many families faced. Disruptions in global trade along with the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) contributed to rising unemployment. For those who did have work, for too many it was precarious: part-time, unstable, low-wage and without benefits. This may explain why 1 in 5 people who visited a food bank were working.

Not only is the economy under stress, our social fabric is also fraying. Around the world, human rights and democratic institutions are being threatened amid growing global insecurity. What was an emerging consensus around the values of diversity, economic inclusion, environmental stewardship and the importance of evidence seems to have unravelled.

In this shifting landscape, we are confronted by growing social polarization along with isolation and loneliness. The impacts of climate change are also being felt more acutely, with wildfires, heat and extreme weather threatening our communities. And the social sector we rely on to provide stability in times of change is itself stretched to its limits due to spiralling need and shrinking resources. Inevitably, those who are already the most vulnerable are the ones most deeply affected.

The storm we now watch gather is the storm of poverty, in all its dimensions. More than just a lack of money and basic needs, poverty is equally a condition of social disconnection and a crisis of meaning where one’s dignity, rights and purpose are diminished. It’s a condition affecting us all to some degree.

Doing something meaningful to reduce and end poverty requires more than just acts of charity to help those with the least money. It will involve actively tackling the systems that create and sustain it and render us all vulnerable. As Monica Da Ponte puts it in her report  A Deep Dive into Poverty: “To make lasting progress, we must redesign that system, so it naturally produces equity, resilience, well-being and sustainability.”

Over the past year, the Canadian Poverty Institute has been working with partners across Canada to deepen our understanding of the roots of poverty in order to make meaningful systemic change. Read about the CPI’s work in the 2025 Impact Report. Our research delved into issues of housing sustainability, financial exclusion and gender-based violence. We conducted evaluations and strategic planning with community partners to build their capacity to serve and make change. Through our Summer Institute and community education activities we provided knowledge and training to over 500 students and practitioners across Canada and around the world. Our practitioner networks connected over 75 public, private and non-profit organizations throughout the country to address pressing issues such as precarious employment, energy poverty and financial exclusion. These networks developed and advocated important policy positions to the federal, provincial and municipal governments.

This is the critical but mostly unseen work of connecting knowledge to practice that leads to long-term change. It requires a commitment to bringing evidence to bear on the policies, decisions and values that drive our systems. Equally, it requires listening to and elevating the voices of those who have been marginalized by those systems. And most importantly it requires a commitment to justice.

As we continue to pursue these commitments in the coming year, we hope you will support us in our quest to make Canada a place where the roots of poverty can no longer take hold, one where all people can realize their full potential, dignity and rights. Will you join us?

Derek Cook

Director, Canadian Poverty Institute

If you share our vision and passion for ending poverty in Canada, we would welcome your financial support. Donate here