Investigating the Effectiveness of Poverty-Reduction Projects for a Small-Sized City in Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT The income level of households has been widely used in Canada as a basis for proposing and implementing poverty-reduction projects. Although the average poverty rate has been decreasing at the national level for years, small and medium-sized cities are experiencing high and growing poverty over the same fiscal years. In this study, we identify the main challenges and differences in addressing poverty in a small-sized city in Canada by examining related academic literature and analyzing past poverty-reduction projects at municipal, provincial, and national levels in the city of Saint John experiencing a long history of generational poverty. Our findings show that the generic recommendations of poverty-reduction projects at provincial and national levels have failed to address and reduce poverty at the municipal level. Despite significant discrepancies between small and large cities, these recommendations and action plans were not customized for the city of Saint John. We argue that poverty should be addressed from a multidimensional perspective, as income has not efficiently specified poor communities in smaller cities in Canada. We ultimately recommend how poverty could be reduced in such cities through building an integrated database collecting data of vulnerable individuals as well as their financial and non-financial needs and demands.