At its core, the  Market Basket Measure (MBM) is an absolute low-income line. It represents a basket of goods and services which reflect a modest, basic standard of living for a reference family. The presentation will begin by providing a brief explanation on how poverty is measured in Canada. It will then present a brief overview of the MBM methodology, explaining how it is updated and how it is used to produce poverty rates. Finally, it will end by describing work being done at Statistics Canada to improve timeliness concerns by producing preliminary poverty estimates.

Date: Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 1:30 to 2:30 PM EDT

About the presenter:

Burton Gustajtis, Statistics Canada 
Burton Gustajtis has worked at Statistics Canada for 19 years. Over the last eight, he has been responsible for the Market Basket Measure (MBM) program, Canada’s official measure of poverty.