An overwhelming number of Canadians who filled out an online survey asking for input on Ottawa’s soon-to-be-updated official poverty line — which the Liberal government states 850,000 Canadians have crossed since 2015 — said it calculated housing costs too low.

Ninety-three per cent of respondents to a recent, widely promoted survey on the Statistics Canada website asking about the “market basket measure” for poverty said housing costs within its formula was “too low,” compared to six per cent who said it was “about right” and one per cent who said it was “too high.”

That measure defines the poverty line based on the annual cost of a basket of food, clothing, shelter, transportation and other items to achieve a “modest, basic standard of living” in 50 regions in Canada.

Those who earn an annual disposable income below the threshold are considered to be living in poverty. For example, the poverty line for a family of four living in Vancouver would be an income of $40,199 in 2017, the year most-recent calculations are available.

The benchmark was the formula chosen by the Liberal government to be Canada’s first-ever official poverty line, and Ottawa is set to update its methodology next year. While slightly adjusted for inflation annually, the base year for the basket of items is still 2008.

Last week, Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos released an update report on its poverty reduction strategy, stating Ottawa has already met its interim target of cutting poverty by 20 per cent by 2020. The report said some 850,000 Canadians have left poverty since the Liberals were elected in 2015.

READ MORE: Liberals promise to cut poverty by 20 per cent with new law

Michèle Biss, policy director at Canada Without Poverty, said taking into account the current housing calculations for the market basket measure, the government’s touted figures on poverty reduction are “premature.”

“Based on the numbers that the government has released, the announcement that we’ve dropped poverty so significantly, is absolutely premature,” she said.

“We will likely see an enormous change once the market basket measure methodology is updated.”

For the basket measure’s shelter component, a family of four living in Toronto would pay $14,502 in rent in 2017, averaging out to $1,208.50 per month. To offer context, according to Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation figures, the average monthly rent for a three bedroom or more unit in the city that year was $1,595, with higher rents in the city’s core and lower rents outside.

Ottawa is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of basket items, and 2018 is set to be the measure’s new base year. Biss said any update would need to adjust housing costs, which ranges from $6,690 to $14,502 in 2017 for a family of four.

“Housing has increased so significantly past the rate of inflation that we know that that’s not an accurate number,” she said.

Certain experts and anti-poverty advocates such as Biss prefer the “low-income measure,” a more easily-calculable measure, which is half of median income. The market basket measure’s regions also do not currently include northern and on-reserve populations.

Under the low-income measure, the country’s poverty rate sat at 12.7 per cent in 2017. Using the official poverty line, the rate was 9.5 per cent. Poverty has declined in recent years faster using the official cut-off.

Survey received high response

The July document providing an update on the measure’s review cautions that the survey was a voluntary and non-sample poll, which “cannot be considered representative of the views of all Canadians.”

“Nevertheless, the results can help validate the directions Statistics Canada should take in recommending updates of the market basket measure,” the document states.

The survey was part of consultations on the measure conducted from September 2018 through April 2019. The questionnaire received 9,666 responses from Oct. 9 to Jan. 31, six times more than the government had anticipated.

The first part of the survey asked participants if the existing thresholds for their family size and region were “too high, too low, or about right” in the context of 2018.

A majority of respondents had judged food, clothing and miscellaneous costs in the poverty benchmark to be appropriate, while 53 per cent of those who took the survey said transportation costs were calculated too low.

A spokesperson for Duclos said the market basket measure was chosen after “extensive consultations from coast to coast to coast,” hearing from people of all walks of life about what needed to be considered in order to give a proper snapshot of the costs of living.

“Statistics Canada and ESDC will update this basket regularly, to make sure it properly reflects reality,” said press secretary Valérie Glazer. She added that latest income figures from February show “we’ve already reached the lowest level of poverty in Canada’s history.”

READ MORE: Federal poll finds few Canadians believe wealthy and corporations pay fair share of taxes

The federal Liberals have set an ambitious target of reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2030 and allocated tens of billions of dollars towards housing and more to help meet that target. Last week, Duclos also announced the members of a 10-person advisory panel meant to provide independent advice and keep Ottawa accountable on its anti-poverty targets.

Biss said there’s no question that fewer Canadians are in poverty today compared to the start of the current Liberal government, which has brought in measures such as the Canada Child Benefit.

But needed going forward is improved data collection and indicators that reflect the different experiences of poverty.

“Measuring poverty is so messy, it’s complicated,” Biss said. “That’s why you need a multitude of different indicators.”

Note: The latest version of the article replaced PadMapper figures on median rental costs with average rent numbers from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Follow @jolsonlim