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Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2007

Chapter 1
Summary

Social assistance in Canada is also known as income support, income assistance, welfare and a few other program names, depending on the jurisdiction. No matter the name, all provincial and territorial social assistance programs provide financial assistance and in-kind goods and services to cover the cost of basic living requirements for an individual or family when all other financial resources of that individual or family have been exhausted. For the purpose of this report, in Chapter 1 and 2, the term social assistance program has been adopted.

In recognition of the growing public demand for comprehensive information on provincial and territorial social assistance programs and caseloads, the Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2007 is the fourth annual joint publication by federal, provincial and territorial governments. The report provides a general overview of social assistance in Canada, as well as a description of income support-related/social assistance programs in each jurisdiction.

This report does not include social assistance rates as this information is currently available to the public on most provincial and territorial government Web sites.

Methodology

The data in this report was provided by provincial and territorial ministries responsible for administering social assistance programs. It was extracted from jurisdictional data systems developed to meet their administrative and case management needs. As such, there are extensive variations in the types of data collected, the manner in which the data is reported, and in the definitions and terminology used. The data in this report should not be used for the purpose of cross-jurisdictional comparison.

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Date Modified:
2010-05-13