Statistics Canada has launched a crowdsourcing initiative to validate how they measure poverty. They are seeking your support to increase awareness among your organization’s clients, supporters and stakeholders.They’ve created a short questionnaire that allows Canadians to provide input on current estimates of how much money a family needs for items like food, clothing, shelter and transportation.If you have questions, please reply directly to this email.

The questionnaire takes no more than five minutes to complete, and will be open to all Canadians from October 15, 2018, to January 31, 2019. Participation is anonymous and respondent information is protected by the Privacy Act.

To ensure strong participation rates, here are some ways to help spread the word:

• Add the Market Basket Measure image to your website and link to www.statcan.gc.ca/measuringpoverty
• Inform your clients, supporters and stakeholders using the content on this webpage
• Follow Statistics Canada on social media and repost their content

If you have questions, please email Income Statistics Division – Market Basket Measure. For more information on this initiative, please visit www.statcan.gc.ca/measuringpoverty.