The Shrinking Safety Netis a data investigation into how Canada’s social programs, healthcare coverage, housing, and food security have changed for the people most dependent on them between 2015 and 2025. It is published in the spirit of ProPublica’s industry playbooks: long-form, footnoted, with the data exposed for you to interrogate.

The numbers come from CMHC rental market reports, Statistics Canada’s consumer price tables, the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s national health expenditure series, Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount reports, the Fraser Institute’s wait time studies, and provincial benefit schedules. Where annual figures are interpolated to fill the years between published benchmarks, the chart will say so. All figures are modelled and directional — not actuarial.

This site presents one angle: the view from the bottom of the gap. It does not give equal weight to what has improved. That is an intentional editorial choice. The point is to make the gap legible, not to balance every paragraph against a counter-argument that exists elsewhere in the discourse already.

For corrections, source requests, or tips: contact@theshrinkingsafety.net.