Poverty Amongst Plenty: Waiting for the Yukon Government to Adopt a Poverty Reduction Strategy

Poverty is bad for the economy, leads to higher health care costs and takes a serious toll on human lives. Most Canadian jurisdictions have developed poverty reduction strategies in the past decade, but Yukon has not. This policy report will provide an overview of poverty indicators in Yukon. It will discuss child apprehensions, housing, land development and homelessness. The report will then provide an overview of the Yukon Child Benefit, social assistance and Yukon seniors’ benefits. This will be followed by a consideration of education, literacy, early child education, child care and at-risk youth. Yukon’s fiscal situation will then be discussed, followed by a look at initial steps taken by the Yukon Government towards the development of a poverty reduction strategy. The report concludes with five recommendations for the Yukon Government.