Budget 2024 provides large investments in housing, but no immediate relief for struggling Canadians

The federal budget 2024 promises affordability, but there is a lack of urgency or details to address immediate challenges.

'Generational fairness': Housing-focused federal budget called boon for young Calgarians

Meaghon Reid spoke with the Calgary Herald ahead of the Federal Budget 2024 on VCC's hopes for the announcement.

"Poverty is a problem that just becomes more expensive if you do not treat it."

Long-term affordability for renters and an increase in non-market housing is an important step in poverty reduction.

Social housing in Canada needs to double to meet demand 

VCC's Meaghon Reid spoke with the CBC about the fact folks earning minimum wage can not make ends meet. 

Alberta used to have the highest minimum wage in the country. Now it's the second lowest

VCC's Meaghon Reid said that housing and affordability being top priorities for residents is not surprising.

Calgary headed 'in wrong direction,' more than half of poll respondents say

Budget 2024 provides large investments in housing and recovery supports and keeps pace on other poverty reducing priorities

VCC discusses minimum and living wages with CTV News Calgary

With federal minimum wage rising, will Alberta follow? Nope

Discovery House’s Leslie Hill explores the tactic of using finances and livelihoods in domestic abuse

Invisible abuse: Economic abuse as a form of domestic violence

Meaghon Reid spoke with CBC why we may have seen a rise in gig based work in Alberta

Alberta tops list of people doing 'gig work' as main job

The impacts of loneliness with Dr. Richard Lewanczuk

PODCAST: Fighting Loneliness for Well-Being

Read our letter of support for the proposed citywide rezoning to a base residential district

VCC applauds the City’s recommendations for making our core safer

Fewer emergency room visits, cost savings for employers, and health equity are just some of the reasons we should go all in on drug coverage for Canadians

Today VCC launched three zines to get people talking about thriving communities

Sparking conversations on what makes a city great

A conversation with economist David MacDonald on his new report on CEO pay  

PODCAST: Exploring Canada’s Growing Wealth Inequality 

VCC weighs in on the consequences for people living on lower incomes

Alberta intends to opt out of national pharmacare plan

A new Canada Housing Advocate report on encampments has VCC’s Meaghon Reid questioning broken systems

Vibrant Communities Calgary says modest living wage would actually be $23.70 per hour

The need for affordable housing and citywide zoning

PODCAST: Changing the Conversation on Housing

Making Decisions for the Future: Ending Poverty Once and for All

Adult Literacy and Foundational Learning 

Quadrant: NW/SW
Population: 87,410
Households: 33,765
Total contacts to 211* for basic needs: 444

Low income demographics (percentage of people within the age group)

Gender wage gap (total female employment income as a % of male)

Differences in employment income between wards and the rest of the city

Average wage (average employment income / 37.5 hours per week)

Housing affordability % of people who pay 30% or more for housing 

Average rents (average shelter cost of tenant households)

Residents from this ward shared the following ideas to help eliminate poverty from their community in 2021:

Increase public education about the experiences of poverty

More funding from the city for “backbone services” and hire local community activators

A shared space for artisans and tool- lending programs

More supports for affordable and accessible childcare

More appropriate cultural supports in the community

Increase measures to create food security

Ward 2 is located in northwest Calgary and includes the following communities: 

Ambleton, Arbour Lake, Citadel, Evanston, Glacier Ridge, Hamptons, Hawkwood, Kincora, Nolan Hill, Ranchlands, Sage Hill. Sherwood, Simons Valley Ranch

The Calgary Poverty Profiles were developed to equip the community with poverty-specific data related to Calgary’s 14 wards. This information can be used to stimulate debate and highlight poverty.

Ward 1: Poverty Profiles 2021 | Enough for All

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Meaghon Reid connects with Dr. Richard Lewanczuk, Edmonton-based endocrinologist and Senior Medical Director of Health System Integration for Alberta Health Services to discuss loneliness and its impacts on health and well-being. 

Episode 25: Fighting Loneliness for Well-being

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Lee Stevens connects with David MacDonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, to discuss his recent report on CEO pay in Canada, taxation and income inequality. 

Episode 24: Exploring Canada’s Growing Wealth Inequality

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Jaclyn Silbernagel connects with Inam Teja, a local advocate and policy expert working to shape the way we think about housing, homelessness and city-building in Calgary.

Episode 23: Changing the Conversation on Housing

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Meaghon Reid sits down with mental health and addictions advocate Karen Gosbee to discuss the realities of domestic violence, the importance of systems working together to create wraparound supports and how we can shift the mental models surrounding mental health and addictions.

Episode 22: Shifting the Models of Support

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Meaghon Reid sits down with Catriona Le May Doan, President and CEO of Sport Calgary,to talk about creating a Calgary where sport is accessible to all, breaking down barriers to provideequitable community sports programs and representation in sports. 

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Jaclyn Silbernagel connects with Elder Wanda First Rider to talk about Indigenous ways of knowing and being, the importance of ceremony and teachings, and her perspective on poverty and how everything we need is here.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Poverty, Meaghon Reid chats with Anna Murphy, a community advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ and women’s issues, about trans rights and the state in Alberta, the poverty statistics of trans individuals, how to create inclusive communities and what allyship truly looks like.

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel chats with Meaghon Reid, Executive Director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, about the state of poverty in Calgary, VCC’s Beneath the Surface report,  and what individuals can do in their spheres of influence to affect poverty reduction and build community wellbeing.

Episode 18: Looking Beneath the Surface of Poverty in YYC

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Salimah Kassam, leader of Rise Calgary, to explore what it means to move from a scarcity to strength mindset, the concept of designing systems that create slack for people, and what some of the roadblocks are to shifting perspectives on poverty.

Episode 17: Shifting Mindsets – Scarcity to Strength

In this episode, Meaghon Reid sits down with Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, to explore what the role of business is in society, how that role is evolving, links between business and a healthy society, and the concept of shared prosperity.

Episode 16: Shared Prosperity – the Role of Business in Society

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with James Stauch, executive director of the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, to explore social innovation and social purpose, and how systems mapping is a wayfinding tool that helps deepen one’s understanding of a problem.

Episode 15: Social Innovation, Mapping Systems & Building Trust

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Jessica Cope Williams, Co-CEO of Kindred Connections Society, to explore how an organization’s name can act as a barrier to those trying to access services and what it means to be a connection first organization. 

Episode 14: Mental Health and Connection First Strategies

In this episode, VCC’s Meaghon Reid sits down with Steacy Pinney, CEO of Calgary Reads, to explore how Calgary Reads is spreading early literacy across Calgary through the Dandelion strategy, and the importance of literacy and prevention in the early years. 

Episode 13: Literacy & the Dandelion Strategy

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Sarah Sinclair, a Lawyer who leads the Indigenous justice program Sahwoo mohkaak tsi ma taas (Blackfoot for “Before Being Judged”) at Calgary Legal Guidance, to discuss creating equal access to justice for Indigenous people, how Indigenous Law brings healing, and the need for systemic change in the legal system.

Episode 12: Systemic Change – Indigenous People and the Legal System

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Lee Stevens, policy and research specialist with Vibrant Communities Calgary to explore basic income. What a basic income could mean for Canadians and how it could have a positive impact on our social support systems.

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Lee Stevens, VCC’s policy and research specialist and this episodes’ co-host alongside Nevena Ivanovic, public policy coordinator with the Women’s Centre of Calgary and Andrea Cox, manager of government relations with YW Calgary. Together they discuss women and the economy, child care in Alberta, and what’s working in regards to policy.

Episode 10: Child Care, Women, and the Economy

In this episode, VCC’s Meaghon Reid sits down with the CEO of The Alex, Joy Bowen-Eyre, to explore what it means to provide dignified services, how food is a convenor and community builder, and how progress comes from investing energy into policy and advocacy. 

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Hagir Sail to explore allyship. 

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Celestina Akinkunmi with the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) to explore settlement and integration services in Calgary.

In this episode, Jaclyn Silbernagel sits down with Vibrant Communities Calgary and EndPovertyEdmonton’s Executive Directors to get their perspectives on poverty reduction and the future of Alberta.

Episode 6: No Battle of Alberta when it comes to Poverty Reduction

On March 25, 2024 the Social Policy Collaborative submitted a letter to Mayor Jyoti Gondek and Calgary City Council in support of Citywide zoning.  

Letter of Support for Calgary Citywide zoning

VCC provided a letter of support for the Citywide zoning proposal before Council in March 2024.

Letter of support for the proposed citywide rezoning to a base residential district

Employment income that is sufficient to cover the cost of living is vital to reducing poverty and building a resilient city and economy. Since 2008, Vibrant Communities Calgary has been updating the living wage figure for Calgary. This brief provides the details of the calculation, which has been done in collaboration with the Alberta Living Wage Network since 2021.

Significant numbers of people and families in Calgary face financial challenges that put them at risk of homelessness. This study defines different levels of risk, in order to focus on people at high risk of slipping into homelessness. The authors assume, based on the findings of previous studies, that people faced with financial hardship make all possible budgetary changes to lower their cost of living and thereby retain housing. These changes include using food banks, relying on charities, eating less nutritious diets, living in more crowded conditions, moving to housing with lower rent and giving up any hope of maintaining what the designers of Canada’s poverty line define as a “modest and basic standard of living.” The highest risk category comprises those who have exhausted nearly all efforts to maintain their housing and are extremely vulnerable to even minor shocks to income or living costs.

Estimating the number of people and households in Calgary at high risk of homelessness relies on key assumptions about housing costs, family structure, food budget, and expenditure reduction. The authors show how their estimates of the number of housed people at high risk of homelessness varies by these assumptions. These calculations provide insight into the effects of rent increases and food inflation on the ability of people with very low income to maintain housing. In doing so, they also provide evidence of how relatively small adjustments to income, rent, and food prices can pull people from the brink of homelessness.

How many housed people in Calgary are at risk of homelessness?

This policy brief outlines feasible solutions to issues related to eligibility, adequacy, means testing and accountability of the AISH program. The recommendations seek to improve the quality of life for Albertans living on low incomes with disabilities, and ensure they have the necessary income to meet their basic needs.

Liveable Incomes: Improving the Effectiveness of Alberta's AISH Program

The Report to Community outlines key accomplishments and initiatives in the year. Links to archived reports are below. 

Audited financial statements for VCC Initiatives Ltd.

The audited financial statements for VCC Initiatives Ltd. for the year ended December 31, 2021. 

Creating a city where poverty cannot exist is an ambitious goal. It means having a city where our health, education, childcare, and transportation systems meet our needs. A city where jobs pay living wages, and our income support programs meet our basic needs. But it’s what Enough for All strives to attain.

We know that poverty is about so much more than just income. In Beneath the Surface - the layers of poverty in Calgary we look beneath the surface of the metrics, and to learn the story behind them. Looking at these multifaceted layers helps us measure what matters and uncover solutions that will chart a better path forward.

View a summary of Beneath the Surface - the layers of poverty in Calgary.

Campaign 2000 summarized the main themes of a conversation held with seven working parents with lived experience of poverty. The conversation was hosted by Poverty Talks! and Vibrant Communities Calgary in partnership with Campaign 2000: End Child and Family Poverty. 

This summary is in four sections based on the topics of discussion. Main themes with related content and quotes are presented for each topic. The conversation content will be further analyzed over the next year, alongside content from other conversations across the country, to help create a community-driven indicator framework and recommendations for action.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 resulted in shifts in the way that organizations and community-based initiatives provide food and revealed gaps and opportunities within the emergency food system. 

In order to better understand and develop recommendations to improve Calgary’s emergency food assistance program, the Canadian Poverty Institute and Vibrant Communities Calgary published Examining Calgary’s Emergency Food Assistance System in March 2021. The purpose of the research was to explore the scope of food insecurity in Calgary in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, assess the effectiveness of the current emergency food system, and identify opportunities for improving the effectiveness of the emergency food assistance system. 

More than a year later, challenges and disruptions continue to shape Canada’s food systems. The resiliency and adaptability of the system is continually tested, and it remains unclear which changes to the Canadian food system, from the COVID-19 pandemic, will be permanent. This report serves as an update to Examining Calgary’s Emergency Food Assistance System. The purpose is to follow up on the recommendations developed from the original study, and examine which changes were temporary or permanent. It also seeks to document stories from the community; celebrating innovative projects and lessons learned. 

The State of Calgary's Emergency Food Assistance System

The Social Policy Collaborative outlines three key policy recommendations to help the provincial government meet its commitment to Albertans in need of affordable housing. The brief also highlights recent polling data showing that 70% of Albertans agree that the provincial government has an obligation to invest in building new affordable housing units.

A path to recovery: Growing Alberta's affordable housing stock and recovery-oriented support systems

Mayor Jyoti Gondek proclaimed the month of October 2022 as End Poverty Month.

End Poverty Month was initiated to raise awareness of poverty and to serve as a platform for Calgarians to participate in poverty reduction efforts in the community. It is centered around the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty held annually on October 17. 

Every year, progress on Calgary’s Poverty Reduction Strategy – Enough for All – is evaluated by an independent third-party. The Enough for All 2021 evaluation was conducted by Dr. Katrina Milaney, who engaged stakeholders in a series of surveys, focus groups and interviews. She also completed a review of Champion research and annual reports to compile indicators across levers, including employment rates, income support caseloads, and program statistics.

The year 2021 marked the third year of the second iteration of the Enough for All Strategy. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to linger. Despite these issues, there were several highlights in 2021. This report shows progress and identifies gaps in the Goals, Levers of Change, Principles and the evolving role of VCC and Champions in advancing the Enough For All Strategy, all in the wake of a global pandemic. Stakeholders believe that because of growing pressures, several years of learnings, adaptations and long-term community partnerships, investment in and commitment to the E4A strategy is more important than ever. 

More Important than Ever: Enough for All Evaluation Report 2021

In 2022 Poverty Talks engaged the community in a discussion on housing. The key learning was that housing is a human right and everyone deserves a safe, secure home. A summary of the feedback and what needs to change is provided in this resource.

In 2022 Poverty Talks engaged the community in a discussion on public transit. The key learning was that being able to travel easily to work, groceries, school and healthcare is critical in overcoming poverty. A summary of the feedback and what needs to change is provided in this resource.

2022 Community Conversations: Public Transit

In 2022 Poverty Talks engaged the community in a discussion on food insecurity. The key learning was that a lack of income is at the root of food insecurity. A summary of the feedback and what needs to change is provided in this resource.

2022 Community Conversations: Food Insecurity

The Calgary Social Policy Collaborative asked housing expert Dr. Nick Falvo to complete a situational analysis and identify opportunities for housing affordability advocacy at the provincial level. The Affordable Housing Brief lays out general themes, key research and facts as well as the existing policy landscape.

Calgary Social Policy Collaborative: Affordable Housing Brief 

Poverty affects every aspect of your life, not only the ability to meet your basic needs — your health, relationships, how you’re impacted by climate change, even how safe you are while you walk through your neighbourhood. We do the poverty snapshot to understand how people experience poverty and what policy makers can do to help. 

On Nov 1, 2021 the Government of Alberta released Stronger Foundations: Alberta's 10-year strategy to improve and expand affordable housing, intending to outline the action needed to provide more affordable and accessible housing options for Albertans. While some aspects of the strategy are supported by VCC and the Edmonton Social Planning Council, there are also elements that pose considerable risks.

Check out their analysis What you need to know about Stronger Foundations: The Government of Alberta’s affordable housing strategy.

Analyzing the Government of Alberta’s affordable housing strategy

Earlier this year, the Calgary Foundation released its 2021 Vital Signs report, reflecting the feelings of 1,000 Calgarians who shared their unique perspectives and impressions of life over the past year. It struck us that this timely snapshot of life in Calgary touched on some important themes such as quality of life, racism, and how people are coping with the pandemic. Check out our infographic below that shows how Enough for All continues to align with some key issues identified by Calgarians.

Infographic: Enough for All alignment with Calgary Foundation's Vital Signs Report

The cost of living, particularly housing, continues to drive the living wage up

Calgary’s Living Wage is $23.70 per hour

Highlighting the experiences of poverty in Calgary's communities

With affordability and inflation top of mind for many in 2022, VCC continued work advocating, educating and mobilizing

This guide will help you meaningfully engage with candidates on affordable housing, income security, and public safety

A discussion about ending child and family poverty

Not filing your taxes? You could be missing out!

Test your knowledge of the rich culture, history and language of Indigenous peoples and communities around Alberta

This End Poverty Month learn how poverty impacts all of us

Every year Enough for All is evaluated by an independent third-party.
The evaluation captures our community's progress towards achieving systems change priorities. The evaluation also provides direction to Vibrant Communities Calgary on its role in successfully advancing the Enough for All Strategy.

More Important Than Ever: Enough For All Evaluation Report

Discussions focused on public transit, housing, and food insecurity 

Our collective progress towards achieving Enough for All

Learn more about the steps taken to advance the development of an Indigenous gathering space within the City of Calgary

Public transit must be connected, convenient, accessible, and affordable

Transit – moving the conversation beyond ‘affordable’

2020 Evaluation Report highlights progress in poverty reduction

Building Back Better – Enough for All in action

Collective impact and collaboration at the centre of reducing poverty in Calgary

Enough for All Changemakers constantly ask ‘what’s possible?’

Evaluating our collective progress towards achieving Enough for All in 2020

Laying Bare Inequities: COVID-19, Gender, Race and Precarious Employment

Reflecting on Basic Income Through the Lens of Poverty Reduction

Combating poverty in the earliest stages of life

Discussions focused on the Enough for All strategy's Levers of Change

Calgary influencers met with community partners who have first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to live in poverty

Overcoming Stigma: Poverty is Not a Choice

A review from the Alberta Social Policy Collaborative

Ward 1

At a glance

Low income demographics (percentage of people within the age group)

8.4%

Ages 0-17

7.5%

Ages 18-64

7.5%

Ages 65+

Income Inequality

Statistics by category

Ideas

Next Ward

Poverty Profiles