The Poverty Line

During a lunch time discussion at work yesterday somehow my placement on, below or above the poverty line came into question. As usual there were many people with many opinions and statistics, none of them accurate. After a bit of research I have discovered that I rest just above the poverty line (last calculated in 2005.) For an unattached individual, or family of one (basically me) who lives in an urban centre of more then 500,000 people (basically Ottawa) would be considered to be living in 'straitened circumstances' if making less then $20,778 a year before taxes. At my current job I clear that number by a couple of thousand, which really isn't much. If you work 38 hours a week you need to make more then $10.50 an hour to be above this line. This is very frightening as minimum wage is sitting at $8 right now. Statistics Canada claims that only about 11% of Canada's population is below this poverty line. I may not be under it right now but I'm close, damn close.