‘Sustainability Corner’: No poverty
By Independent columnist Simon Chorley
Welcome to Sustainability Corner where each week we will look at a global issue making a local impact.
These issues are based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were set by governments, including Canada, in 2015, with the aim of achieving them by 2030. The aim is not to provide all the answers, but to spark constructive conversations about our role in addressing these challenges.
Week 1: No Poverty.
Growing up in East Africa, I witnessed poverty firsthand. But I didn’t expect to see it across homes in England or on streets in Canada. And I certainly didn’t expect to see it in Northumberland County, which has been home to my family and I for the last 13 years.
Extreme poverty is defined internationally as surviving on less than $3 a day US and has declined significantly around the world in recent decades. However, in 2026, the United Nations reports that 826 million people – or one in 10 people worldwide – were living in extreme poverty. If current trends continue, nine per cent of the world’s population will still live in extreme poverty by 2030.
In Canada, Statistics Canada reports that 11 per cent of Canadians – or about 4.5 million people – live below the poverty line. This is the percentage of people who cannot afford the cost of a specific basket of goods and services in their community, including food, clothing and footwear, transportation, shelter and other expenses. In Ontario, this rises to 12.5 per cent of the population, but in Northumberland this drops to 8.7 per cent. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s still nearly one in 10 people in our community.
While the Ontario government is increasing the general minimum wage from $17.60 to $17.95 an hour on Oct. 1, there is still a gap between this and the hourly wage that people are believed to need to cover their basic expenses and participate in their community, which the Ontario Living Wage Network put at $22.20 for Northumberland County.
The factors that contribute to poverty in our community are many and complex, and we’ll get into those in more detail in the coming weeks. But the key takeaway for this week is that as we focus on local situations and solutions, let’s not forget the long-term global and national contexts we find ourselves in, which can be just as important as the current geopolitical events we are experiencing.
Simon Chorley is a Cobourg resident and a human rights and sustainability consultant. He has previously worked at a human rights charity tackling human trafficking, and for the United Nations. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
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