The Cost of Poverty in Manitoba

The  cost of poverty in Manitoba includes three areas of cost: remedial costs, opportunity costs, and intergenerational costs: 

1. Remedial costs: the direct cost of poverty arising from treating the damage poverty causes people. 

a. Health: The health cost of poverty is calculated by the cost of increased usage of the health care system by those struggling with poverty as compared with the second income quintile.

b. Crime: Living in poverty creates vulnerabilities that place people at risk of being criminalized or victims of crime. These are quantified as direct expenditures by governments, costs to victims and preventative measures. 

1. Opportunity costs are the indirect costs of poverty that prevent people from fully taking advantage of economic opportunities. The report quantifies how much more low income people could contribute in taxes if they were not trapped in poverty. 
   
   
2. Lost Productivity is measured by how much more workers could contribute to the economy if they were in better-paying jobs. 
   
   
3. Intergenerational costs of families trapped in poverty is estimated by the number of children that would escape poverty if the intergenerational transfer of poverty were eliminated. 
   

Read full report for details.