This paper discusses ten major policy areas that comprise the core of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy:

·       affordable housing which involves the creation of new units, property retrofit and/or rent supplementation

·       early childhood development, including sufficient affordable high-quality child care

·       high school completion and improved literacy proficiency

·       demand-driven customized training that engages the private sector, training institutions and employment programs, and the removal of employment barriers, particularly for foreign-trained workers

·       improved minimum wages and enhanced supplementation of low earnings through the federal Working Income Tax Benefit and provincial earnings supplements, and of income through federal and provincial/territorial child benefits

·       appropriate replacement of employment earnings through a restored and improved unemployment insurance system

·       adequate income and appropriate supports for persons with disabilities

·       assistance with the creation of assets for low-  and modest-income households and support for the social economy

·       strong social infrastructure in the form of community spaces and associated recreation and cultural programs

·       place-based initiatives that fashion integrated approaches to intervention and that create effective responses to tackling poverty through creative combinations of resources and approaches.