Finance Committee on Nov. 15th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Good morning, everybody. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to the Standing Committee on Finance. This is our pre-budget consultation study in advance of the 2024 budget.

Just for everybody's understanding about our committee and about this particular study, we've received over 850 submissions to our committee. The analysts have an opportunity to go through all those and the recommendations in them.

We have also hosted meetings in Ottawa, of course. We have not been able to travel as a committee for the last five years. This is the first time we've been able to do it and we are crossing the country. We started out in the Atlantic and we got to every province. In this leg, we were in Quebec City. Yesterday, we were in Toronto, which they talk about being the centre, but we are in the centre right now here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We're delighted to be here to be able to hear from all of our witnesses.

Two of our permanent members are from Winnipeg. We have Daniel Blaikie and Marty Morantz right here. We look forward to having a lot of local content and questions asked.

We're in pioneering country. We are a pioneering committee and we have something called an open mike. You will see some witnesses behind those who are at the table. They will be going up to a mike and giving a deputation to our committee, lasting about a minute or two. The analysts will be able to capture all of that.

I had the opportunity to hear from this group when we first started this open mike exercise back in 2016. We called them “The Grannies”, but it's the Grandmothers Advocacy Network. Our clerk, Alexandre Roger, tells me they are going to be the first at the mike today.

I think that is terrific. They are going to have an opportunity now to give us their statement.

We look forward to hearing from you.

[Joy Dupont, As an Individual]

Good morning.

I am Joy Dupont. I'm a member of the Winnipeg group of the Grandmothers Advocacy Network. GRAN is a national grassroots organization that advocates for the human rights of older women across the global south, with a special concern for the grandmothers of sub-Saharan Africa.

The world is in the midst of a global hunger crisis, with many millions of people experiencing acute food insecurity and hunger. Canada must renew its promise to increase official development assistance year over year to 2030, starting now. We must invest in building sustainable food systems.

Government also needs to improve the quality of its funding in recognition of the expressed needs of affected communities with flexible and longer-term funding, support for small-scale farmers and sustainable farming practices, nature-based approaches, putting a priority on Africa, removing barriers to women's leadership, and supporting locally identified priorities.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you for that, Ms. Dupont.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Alexandre Roger]

The next one up is Glenn Armstrong from the National Association of Federal Retirees.

[Glenn Armstrong, Advocacy Programs Officer, Manitoba, National Association of Federal Retirees]

Good morning.

My name is Glenn Armstrong. I'm a member of the National Association of Federal Retirees. We represent active and retired members of the federal public service, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and retired federally appointed judges, as well as their partners and survivors.

On behalf of our 170,000 members from coast to coast, we have submitted a brief to the finance committee with the following recommendations for your study and deliberations.

Number one, we ask that you protect the rights of older persons, commit to implementing long-term care standards and implement a national seniors strategy.

Number two, we're asking that you finance and implement the national pharmacare program.

Number three, we ask that you support informal caregivers to allow seniors to age in place.

Number four, act on equitable outcomes for veterans, who are a very vulnerable group at this age.

Number five, address the ongoing problems with the Phoenix pay system.

Number six, expand the number of directors on the Public Sector Pension Investments board to include a pensioner representative. No one on that board is a pensioner.

Number seven, we ask that you address federal retiree benefits. The recent changes to the public service health care plan have caused significant difficulties for many employees and for many retirees.

Number eight, we ask that you act on cost of living issues. With the record inflation in the last two years, rising prices have made things especially difficult for seniors on a fixed income.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

Now we'll hear from our next witness at the mike.

[The Clerk]

We have the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program. We have Kristi Hansen, as well as Katrina Lengsavath.

Please go ahead.

[Katrina Lengsavath, As an Individual]

Good morning.

My name is Katrina Lengsavath, and I am one of the recipients of the 2022 Terry Fox Humanitarian Award.

On behalf of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program, I ask the Canadian government to support our budget submission. The award allows youth like me to do something. It enables generations of Canadians to tackle current real-world issues and uphold the humanitarian legacy of Terry Fox. This is solving problems by addressing critical needs in society and providing much-needed hope.

[Kristi Hansen, As an Individual]

My name is Kristi Hansen, and I was a Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program recipient in 1999, a little earlier on. This scholarship allowed me to enter the prestigious bachelor of fine arts program at the University of Alberta, where I graduated with honours in 2003.

This awards program is unique in that it supports people entering post-secondary education who have demonstrated a commitment to humanitarian work in the face of overcoming adversity in their life. As a disabled person, I am proud that I have been able to focus my work in artistic leadership and equity, diversity and inclusion in the arts throughout my career. This work would not have been possible without the support of the program at the beginning of my journey.

I ask that the Canadian government support the budget submission put forward by the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program so that Terry's work can continue to live on in as many of our scholars as possible for years to come.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Ms. Hansen.

Thank you, Ms. Lengsavath.

Thank you for your advocacy in keeping Terry's light shining.

Now we'll hear from our next witness.

[The Clerk]

We have Mr. Paul Hagerman from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

[Paul Hagerman, As An Individual]

Good morning.

Canada is no longer walking with giants. We used to be able to count on giants in the world stage, like the U.S. and the U.K., to help us navigate global turmoil, but no longer. With global crises increasing, Canada must forge its own foreign policy responses.

Canada's development assistance is a big part of how the world sees us. Canadian aid is building stability and prosperity around the world, and it's making friends for Canada, but we're a below-average aid donor, and that aid was cut further in last year's budget, despite this government's promise to increase aid every year. We're turning our back on the world. That will cost us.

In budget 2024, Canada should restore aid and recommit to annual increases, and Canada should make resilient food systems a priority in the aid budget. I won't go into detail on resilient food systems. Joy from GRAN did a great job on that just a few minutes ago.

Canada is already a giant in domestic agriculture and food. We could also be a giant in the world by ramping up support for food systems in our aid programs.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Hagerman, for your advocacy, like all the others.

I think they all deserve a round of applause from us.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, everyone.

Now we're going to get into our meeting here at the table. We have a number of witnesses with us. Each of the witnesses will have an opportunity to make a five-minute opening statement.

I should have said that there are interpretation devices here. If you are not bilingual, please use them. The channels are number 1 for English and number 2 for French. If you could keep the device away from the mike, that would help with any kind of feedback that sometimes happens.

With us today we have the Association culturelle franco-manitobaine, with Edouard Lamontagne, arts and cultural development officer. We have the Business Council of Manitoba, with president and chief executive officer Bramwell Strain, as well as the co-chair of the competitive business environment committee, Al Babiuk. From Harvest Manitoba, we have president and chief executive officer Vince Barletta. From the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, we have president and chief executive officer Chuck Davidson. From Make Poverty History, we have Josh Brandon.

Welcome.

We are going to start our five-minute opening remarks with the Association culturelle franco-manitobaine, please.

[Edouard Lamontagne, Arts and Cultural Development Officer , Association culturelle franco-manitobaine]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning.

On behalf of the board of directors of the Association culturelle de la francophonie manitobaine and Josée Théberge, the director general, who could not join us because of a trip, as well as my colleagues Martine Bordeleau and Kelly Bado‑Giesbrecht, I would like to thank the committee for inviting us. We are particularly grateful to the MP for Joliette, Gabriel Ste‑Marie, from the Bloc Québécois.

My name is Edouard Lamontagne. I am in charge of programming for the Association culturelle de la francophonie manitobaine, more commonly known as the ACFM.

Today, I want to share with you the importance of the role our organization has played for 37 years. Since February 17, 1986, the ACFM and its committees have been contributing to the development of francophone culture by ensuring the implementation of cultural and artistic programming. This is made possible thanks to the involvement of volunteers in rural communities and, of course, financial support from the federal government.

Only the ACFM and its cultural committees are able to provide artistic and cultural programming in French to the communities they serve in every corner of Manitoba.

Here are three concrete examples of our impact in francophone rural Manitoba.

In 2022, the ACFM and its members presented Raconte-moi ton patrimoine, the third phase of the project entitled “Les Lieux-dits”, which was created in partnership with the Société Radio-Canada and the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine. The primary purpose of the “Les Lieux-dits” project was to showcase the small towns, the families that founded them and the experience of those living in rural Manitoba. Participants from various generations worked together to highlight 49 sites in 17 Franco-Manitoban small towns. About 20 of these projects came to life on stage as part of a tour of theatre productions in rural communities and in Winnipeg.

In 2023, the “Janvier, célébrons notre culture au rural” project was presented in partnership with the Festival du Voyageur. This project proposed a series of snow sculpture workshops that took place in four francophone villages in Manitoba in January. Members of the public were invited to take part in a sculpture workshop with a professional Franco-Manitoban snow sculptor in a magical scene set in deepest winter. Francophone artists and artisans from rural areas put on shows and set up stands, which made for a festive atmosphere. It was a triumph. The participants, regardless of the language they use, all want to host the event in their community next year.

For eight years, the ACFM and the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine have been offering comedy training to high school students in rural schools. This unique project offers aspiring comedians the opportunity to stimulate their creativity, develop self-confidence, and improve their oral and written skills in French by creating a comedy routine with professional comedians.

For the past five years, training has taken the form of a three-day residential camp, ongoing support and an opportunity to present a routine in front of professional comedians from Acadia and Quebec. This innovative project is now being held up as an example to be followed across Canada.

As you can see, the ACFM and its members play a key role in the development of Manitoba's rural francophonie. The ACFM works closely with its members to organize events that bring all generations together in a manner that respects all cultures and encourages the transmission of culture and language.

The ACFM and its collaborators are working to promote rural communities by organizing these fantastic projects. Manitoba's rural communities are showcased by our local artists and artisans, who act as proud ambassadors.

Dear members of the committee, we strongly encourage you to consider organizations such as the ACFM, which works for the development of rural regions through arts, culture and heritage. By supporting the ACFM, the federal government is demonstrating its commitment to promoting the French language and francophone culture in minority communities, as well as its support for the arts in Manitoba's rural francophone communities.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Lamontagne.

Next, we will hear from the Business Council of Manitoba.

[Bramwell Strain, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Manitoba]

Thank you.

Members of the committee, bienvenue à tous. The Business Council of Manitoba and our members would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide input for federal budget 2024. To borrow a quote from our new premier, here are our recommendations to increase the ability of the “economic horse” to pull “the social cart”.

Number one is controlling the levels of government debt and debt-servicing costs while maintaining a globally competitive tax structure. There is an immediate need to control the amount of spending to service the national debt, in order to ensure sufficient spending in critical areas, such as providing health care and social programs and investing strategically for economic growth. The continuation of deficit-financed spending at higher interest rates typically leads to higher taxation. This needs to be avoided at all costs to keep us competitive.

Canada must be globally competitive. Our tax structure and regulatory environment must routinely be benchmarked to other OECD countries with the objective to first improve Canada's position, and then continue to maintain it. This, in addition to growth-supporting investments, will make Canada a more attractive country to invest and do business in, leading to GDP growth and increased funding through taxation for social programming.

The Government of Canada must invest in service delivery efficiencies and technology-based solutions wherever possible. A risk-based approach to program integrity and processing must be taken, and a comprehensive program review of government spending should be undertaken to rationalize existing programs.

Number two is labour market development. Canada is experiencing a general shortage of labour suitable to meet employer needs. In addition, labour productivity rates in Canada have been decreasing over the past several decades compared with other nations. The recent increases in federal immigration levels and provincial nominee program allocations are positive developments.

Now, work must focus on the selection process to better align newcomers with labour market and employer needs. Foreign credential recognition continues to be an issue for newcomers to our country. We recommend the creation of a credential alignment tax credit for new Canadians pursuing Canadian equivalents to their foreign credentials. This will allow people to gain Canadian credentials more quickly and affordably while boosting the labour market and GDP.

Further, we need to continue to address the goals of economic reconciliation and reduce the social costs of underemployed populations. There must be an investment in programs that will increase workforce participation rates, including among female, northern and indigenous citizens. Positive program examples are work-integrated learning provided through employers, tax credits to offset the costs of employer-led training, and strategically aligning university education funding with employer needs.

There is also an immediate need for a joint funding program with provinces to create new day care spaces, and to recruit and train workers in support of the national $10-a-day day care program. Manitoba was one of the first to adopt a $10-a-day program, but it is utterly useless without the spaces and the workers.

Number three is housing. Housing supply across the country is insufficient in comparison to demand. The significant volume of immigration to Canada, the severe effects of inflation in building costs and increases in interest rates that affect mortgage affordability are all contributing factors to this issue. The adjacent issue of lack of affordable housing for the population considered unhoused due to socio-economic factors is also of great concern. There is an immediate need to incentivize the private sector to increase new housing and multi-family project starts. Enhanced incentive programs through CMHC, such as lower-rate financing or developer tax credits, are critical to address the rising construction and interest rate costs, which are currently prohibitive.

To build more housing, we need more skilled labour. A combination of immigration and increased funding to provinces via the labour market development agreements is critical for the construction industry, and educational institutions must invest in additional training and apprenticeship programs.

Number four is infrastructure. Canada's competitive ranking in terms of critical trade infrastructure has dropped significantly over the past decade. The COVID–19 pandemic period further emphasized the necessity of robust supply chains and infrastructure. Canada requires a long-term integrated national trade corridor strategy developed and financed through collaboration among the federal and provincial governments and the private sector. The national trade corridor strategy should include transportation systems, supply chain design and a review of trade opportunities arising from existing and prospective mining and port activities in northern areas.

In addition, the scope and criteria used by the Canada Infrastructure Bank should be revised and expanded to ensure that all funding, including funding allocated in past budgets, can productively be used toward priorities or investments.

On ownership transitions in Canada, 75% of existing business owners in Canada plan to exit their business in the next 10 years. This is a crucial stat. This will create a substantial risk that many of these companies will become foreign-owned branch subsidiaries or directly relocate to other communities.

One recommendation to ensure that companies remain in Canada is to facilitate employee ownership transitions. Despite recent changes to the trust legislation in 2023, the major incentives to facilitate employee-owner transitions were not addressed. Eliminating the capital tax impact on owners would differentiate these owner-employee transitions from other third party transactions and dramatically increase the likelihood of businesses remaining and growing in Canada and dispersing wealth to employees.

On the green economy, Manitoba is a leader in green energy with its usage of hydroelectricity. Therefore, the impact of reducing emissions is much less in Manitoba compared to other provinces, which are dependent on hydrocarbon fuels. The federal government incentive programs for GHG reductions should be adjusted for the relative proportions of hydro power to ensure that provinces like Manitoba are able to participate on a level playing field.

We encourage the federal government to work with the new Manitoba provincial government to ensure that the proceeds of the carbon tax pricing are utilized to provide incentives for investing in green technologies, including the development of hydrogen power and electrification of transportation—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Strain.

We are well over our time, but you are going to have a lot of time during questions from the members to expand on that.

We'll go to Harvest Manitoba, please, for five minutes.

[Vince Barletta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Harvest Manitoba]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning.

Harvest Manitoba is Manitoba's food bank supporting the food security programs of 380 agency partners in 46 communities across our province. These programs are serving more than 100,000 people every month.

The need for food banks in Canada and Manitoba has never been greater. Food bank use has increased by 150% since prepandemic levels. Across Canada today, nearly two million people are using a food bank to support their daily food needs. In fact, Stats Canada had a report just yesterday showing that one in five Canadians is food-insecure.

I do want to acknowledge the Government of Canada's support during the pandemic for the emergency food security fund, as well as the local food infrastructure fund, LFIF, which enabled Harvest Manitoba and other organizations to make investments and sustain their operations at a very difficult time. I would encourage those continued investments in food security organizations.

Whenever I speak with food bank clients about what is driving the need, the story is always the same: inflation, inflation, inflation. Rising prices for everything we buy, from food to housing to fuel, are pushing people to the edge and beyond. Sadly, we all know that in times of high inflation, it's those who have the least who hurt the most. That includes people like Taylor.

Taylor is a 26-year-old woman from Winnipeg who uses Harvest's food banks, and has for many years, due to her disabilities, which leave her unable to work. Taylor's source of income is employment and income assistance for persons with disabilities, a program that offers her an income of $1,177 a month, which is $945 below the market basket measure for poverty. Inflation and high grocery prices have caused Taylor to abstain from purchasing healthy food. A lack of that nutritious diet has negatively impacted her mental health, her heart issues and other challenges.

In Manitoba today, one in six people lives with a disability, and people with disabilities are disproportionately represented at our food banks. Forty per cent of food bank clients live with a disability that prevents them from working, causes underemployment, or creates additional expenses for health needs and nutrition.

Parliament took a major step forward when all members voted for the passage of Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act. For too many Canadians today, having a disability is a sentence to a lifetime of poverty. Harvest Manitoba urges Parliament and the government to move swiftly to fund and implement the new Canada disability benefit with amounts that will raise people's incomes above the market basket measure for poverty, that will not be subject to clawbacks and that will be accessible to all Canadians who need it.

Over the past year, a growing number of food bank clients in Manitoba are new to Canada, particularly Ukrainians displaced by the illegal and unprovoked war brought by Vladimir Putin on the Ukrainian people. For so many who are new to our country, their new life in Canada unfortunately begins with a journey to a local food bank. At times over this past year, over half of all new food bank clients in the city of Winnipeg have been displaced Ukrainians.

New Canadians continue to lack meaningful pathways to gainful employment and education, and there is a lack of accessible and affordable housing. Harvest Manitoba urges Parliament to consider additional support for settlement organizations, training organizations and food banks, which continue to allow Canada to successfully settle people from around the world.

In Manitoba, 16 first nation communities remain isolated from the south, with a lack of all-weather road access. Sixty per cent of these households face regular food insecurity. The rates of diabetes are five times higher than the national average. Harvest Manitoba was pleased to be the first food bank in Canada to participate in the nutrition north Canada program.

Today, in partnership with nutrition north Canada and the Island Lake Tribal Council, Harvest Manitoba has established regular community-led food bank operations in remote first nations of over 10,000 people in those Island Lake communities 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg. In our first year of operation, we have shipped nearly 70,000 kilograms of nutritious food to those Island Lake nations, the equivalent of more than 200,000 meals.

Without the nutrition north Canada subsidy in its current and revised form, Harvest Manitoba would not have been able to sustain the high cost of transporting food by air and ice roads to these communities, nor continue our current expansion plans to deliver food in partnership with first nations to other remote northern communities.

We know that food banks and delivering food alone are not a long-term answer to northern food security. Food sovereignty is. Economic development is, as well as opportunity, but these communities need food today.

Canada can and must do better to address the crisis of food security in this country. Along with all Canadians and Manitobans, we look forward to working with this new federal budget that offers hope for a healthy future for all where no one goes hungry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Barletta.

Now I will go to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

[Chuck Davidson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce]

Thank you very much for the invitation to address you today.

Since 1931, the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce has served as the umbrella organization for Manitoba's action-oriented chamber movement. Today, with 64 local chambers of commerce across the province and hundreds of direct corporate members, our network comprises almost 10,000 businesses of all sizes across all sectors. As the voice of business in Manitoba, we advocate for sustainable economic development, entrepreneurial success, vibrant communities and a strong future.

We are proud to belong to a national network that includes more than 400 chambers across Canada, representing over 200,000 businesses, so our comments today will be similar to what you would hear from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, but we will provide a more regional perspective.

Canada's competitiveness is slipping. As members of the committee know, we must achieve much stronger growth if we are to maintain our standard of living and continue to provide the services that Canadians and Manitobans require. The chamber network continues to urge the government to focus on growth driven by the private sector. Many of the measures included in our submission, including regulatory reform and dismantling internal barriers, will cost little or nothing but will generate future wealth and investment.

As we recover from a global pandemic and navigate both high inflation and unprecedented talent shortages, the economy must be the driving force behind government decision-making.

Budget 2024 is the opportunity to implement a decisive strategy to attract the investment needed for strong, sustainable growth and a successful net-zero transition. We now have an opportunity to show the world that we can, quite literally, deliver the goods. The chamber network is eager to partner with government on the strategy that will allow us to respond at this moment. Given the headwinds we face, collaboration between policy-makers and the business community is more critical now than ever before.

Our recommendations for budget 2024 will focus on a couple of areas.

First is easing the burden of doing business. Regulators and businesses must work together to prevent undermining Canada's economic growth and competitiveness. To avoid losing the next generation of talent and innovation to competing nations, government must avoid imposing new business taxes that further drive away investment.

A specific area is the CEBA loan issue. The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce recently joined with chambers of commerce and industry associations across Canada, representing hundreds of thousands of businesses, urging you to extend the current CEBA repayment deadline by two years, to the end of 2025, or at least by one year, while maintaining access to the forgivable portion. Despite best efforts—and government has made some adjustments—we are concerned that high interest rates, inflation and increased labour costs are making it difficult for many small and medium-sized businesses to keep their heads above water, let alone make any dent in the debt that many had to take on to survive pandemic restrictions.

We would also encourage launching a comprehensive independent review of the tax system, something long overdue. Canada must ensure that we're competitive and reform the tax system to make it simpler, more competitive with other countries and more fair.

To ensure regulatory alignment, government must look to ease the regulatory burden facing Canadian businesses and work with industry and our international trading partners to ensure regulatory efficiency and alignment.

There is the attraction and retaining of talent. No matter which community or which business I visit throughout Manitoba, attracting and retaining labour is always a challenge. Attracting and retaining top talent while increasing productivity is vital to Canadian businesses; however, many sectors struggle to find and retain the talent needed to grow.

We would encourage continuing to decentralize the immigration system and the selection process, and we support local solutions built by communities to address community workforce needs. Collaborate more closely with provincial, territorial and municipal governments and with the private sector to better understand labour market needs across the country.

Manitoba's provincial nominee program works extremely well. Manitoba has the third-highest immigration through this program, despite its relatively smaller size compared with other provinces. We've seen huge successes in communities such as Steinbach, Winkler and Altona managing their own immigration programs.

We would encourage expediting and reducing the complexity of the foreign qualification regulations. Accelerated progress on mutual recognition across Canada is needed for qualified newcomers to Canada to be able to contribute to the Canadian economy.

We would encourage collaborating with provinces and territories to enable enhancing skills and reskilling to meet labour market needs. Provide Canadians with flexible, accessible, navigable education and skills development options to foster a culture of lifelong learning and create talent pipelines through targeted matchmaking programs.

Our third area is to build trade-enabling infrastructure. Clear priorities on trade infrastructure projects that yield measurable economic returns are critical. Government can work with the provinces, the private sector, communities, and indigenous peoples to resolve supply chain challenges to enable the Canadian exports the world needs.

By doing that, we would encourage you to commit to a long-term investment through a Canada trade infrastructure plan. Canada must build and maintain trade infrastructure that reliably and efficiently transports goods to and from markets. Domestic and international trade corridors should solidify supply chains and establish Canada as a reliable business partner.

One of your committee members, Mr. Morantz, has in his riding the CentrePort rail park. It alone is expected to create 4,800 jobs and three billion dollars' worth of economic impacts. That's without factoring in the other 1,300 acres of development where that's happening.

We would encourage you to act to reduce interprovincial trade barriers by establishing a public registry. A public registry will raise awareness of barriers to interprovincial trade and encourage governments to justify or eliminate them.

Finally, there is facilitating the move to net zero. In that area, we encourage increased funding for indigenous participation in natural resource development. Funding should be directed to indigenous-led environmental assessments, training and skill development programs, and community consultation.

In conclusion, by focusing greater attention on key economic indicators and measuring our success, budget 2024 can generate positive results, including significant prosperity for all Manitobans.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Davidson.

We'll now hear from Make Poverty History.

[Josh Brandon, Steering Committee Member, Make Poverty History Manitoba]

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to present before your committee. I'm very happy the issue of poverty will be addressed in your deliberations today.

Make Poverty History Manitoba is a coalition of individuals and organizations working towards a Manitoba without poverty. In my comments today, I would like to give you a bit of a snapshot or picture of poverty in Manitoba and tell you about consultations that our coalition conducted earlier this year about poverty reduction policy priorities in Manitoba. I will highlight a few of the key policies that came out of those consultations.

Across the province, 185,000 Manitobans were counted as low-income in the last census. That's approximately one in seven residents. However, we know that poverty in Manitoba, as it is across Canada, is unevenly distributed. Certain populations have dramatically higher rates of poverty. In particular, here in Manitoba, the indigenous population faces almost double the overall rate of poverty. Here in Winnipeg, we have the largest indigenous population of any Canadian city, and we're also the city with the highest rate of urban indigenous poverty among all major cities. The situation on reserve in Manitoba is even more dire, with crushing rates of poverty.

Manitoba has chronically been the province with the highest rate of child poverty. In our partner coalition with Campaign 2000, we work on the local report for Manitoba. Every year, Manitoba ranks either one or two among all provinces. Only Nunavut has a higher rate of child poverty. Here in Manitoba, over one in four children are growing up in poverty. For children in single-parent households and, perhaps most tragically, under the age of five—that key developmental period—the rates are even higher. Almost one in two children under the age of five is growing up in poverty in this province. We have documented higher rates of childhood poverty related to higher rates of infant mortality and childhood suicide as a result of depression and poverty, leading a generation into poverty.

Other groups with elevated rates of poverty include recent immigrants, racialized groups and people with disabilities.

We believe efforts to address poverty must be comprehensive and systematic. The rates I'm talking about came out of the 2021 census, conducted at a time when there were significant investments in poverty reduction via the CERB program and pandemic-related benefits. What we have seen since then is those benefits being withdrawn. We're starting to see an uptick in poverty. In 2020, poverty rates went down significantly, but the latest data shows that poverty is back up among all the groups I was talking about. I think about the forced repayment of CERB benefits. That's a severe hardship for many of the recipients of those benefits.

This past winter, Make Poverty History Manitoba conducted a series of in-person and online consultations with people in our province about poverty and poverty reduction priorities, and about which policies should address them. We included people with lived experience, advocates, experts, service delivery organizations and indigenous leaders in our consultations. Although the discussions were conducted at the provincial level, almost all of the policy priorities have joint jurisdiction and a federal component.

I will not have time to go into all policy priorities, but I want to give you a few highlights that I would like to see actioned by this committee and in the next budget.

First, we need to see action on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action on missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirits, which calls for justice. It's critical, and it needs to be part of an overall poverty reduction legislation with bold targets for reducing and ending poverty in Manitoba and across Canada.

We need to see the transformation of our social assistance system towards a basic livable income program. In every province in Canada, social assistance rates are well below the poverty line. The federal government has a clear role. Although social assistance is delivered by the provinces, we need to see increased social transfers and a tie to increased guaranteed targets for all Canadians towards a livable income. We need to see this on reserve as well.

On the other areas, just to mention them quickly, we need to see housing, with at least 50,000 units of housing per year; employment; early learning and childhood education; investments in mental health and health care; and increases for restorative justice programs.

Thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to the discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Brandon.

You and all the others are going to have a lot of time to expand now on some of the statements and comments in your opening remarks.

We're going to get into our first round of questions. Each party has up to six minutes to ask questions.

We're starting with MP Morantz, of course, the local boy.