Thank you.
I would just add that Diane is our expert on welfare incomes, which is one of the things we haven't touched on yet.
On behalf of our chairperson, John Rook in Calgary, and the members of the council, I want to thank the committee very much for this opportunity and really commend your efforts to find solutions to the tragedy of poverty in this rich country.
As others have said, 10 minutes.... I'm going to have two sentences on everything too. These are quite complex matters. I'm not going to give you a lot of statistics. We're well known for this. You'll see some of them in your package; you've heard a lot today. So we're not going to do that, but of course we'd welcome any questions or further explanation you might have on the presentation, or any of the numbers in the extensive package we've provided.
I'm assuming you're generally aware of the council's history and its publications, including the regular poverty profile and welfare income series that we've been putting out for about a quarter of a century, and our recent report on solving poverty, which really turns things towards finding solutions.
So I'll draw on these and the work of lots of other people as well and offer some insights into what I understand are the key questions that are of interest to the committee. There are basically five areas: the current situation in Canada; populations most at risk; federal roles; a bit about measures and indicators; and some discussion of financing the solutions.
First, let's look at the current situation. As others have indicated, we have to begin with the essential question of what is poverty. There are lots of statistical answers. I won't go into that because others have covered it. But I want to highlight the trends they talked about as to the difference between what has happened with seniors and with the rest of the population, and not just from a statistical perspective, but to look at that from a policy perspective, because in this case we can see very clearly what the policy impact has been on this population. It's much harder to determine what impact different policies are having on other populations. We hear about much of the money that's going into them, but we really don't know how the outcomes are following through.
So beyond the numbers, I want to focus a bit about what we're really talking about in human terms, and it's a continuum of problems. People have talked about “depth of poverty” and “persistence”. People have been looking to Ireland; they have something called a “consistent poverty measure”, or something like that. And we've been hearing different terms and different things. They're all part of the continuum of poverty, misery, insecurity, inequality, exclusion, and even desperation. So I'm not going to go through them all, but in the presentation there are some example scenarios. I didn't put any labels on them, but they give you some hint at real lives and real individuals and how different their circumstances are.
One of the things I'd really like to highlight is the difference between the seniors and most of the others, in relation not just to their level of income but to the security of income and the source of income and how that affects their dignity and their ability to do anything about their circumstances.
One of the most striking things I've read lately--and it's why I included it as an example, and I've heard it from several sources--is how worried people are about aboriginal gangs. There are very clear reasons for that, which we can see if we look beyond the numbers.
Another part of the problem, as I mentioned, is figuring out why we're really not getting results when we've got so many programs and we're putting so much money into things. It seems that's where we really need to focus now.
So one of the things that the National Council of Welfare did in 2006 was to run a questionnaire about poverty and income security. We got a wide range of responses, and they indicated that this array of programs is working. There's no magic about it. There is an array of programs that are really important, some more so than others. Some are really not working, and social assistance tops that list outstandingly. There's no comparison. But student loans and employment insurance follow closely behind as areas that are important valued assets for Canadians, but they really needing improvement.
Aside from direct income support--and we have to look at poverty as income and other things as well--there's a range of social programs and services related to housing, child care, wage laws. All of those things were highly valued as well, and many of them are also in need of improvement.
So in brief, there's no doubt that we have a complex, persistent problem, but we also have elements in place to help us find the way out.
I want to say just a few words about populations most at risk. Again, my first paragraph is irrelevant because it's already been stated. We know statistically who they are. But sometimes we run into the trap of looking at these people as the problem when we do it that way, so I'd encourage the committee to turn around and look at it on its head, look at it in a different way: what factors are putting people at risk? The answer to this is a little bit different, because it includes things like racism and gender discrimination, violence, divorce, illness, accident, disease, low wages, lack of education or qualifications—many of the things we've talked about. Having a child is an economic risk to women, much more so than to men. We really don't have a serious program addressing that.
Another important point is that risk increases when multiple factors are involved. It's not very often just one thing that's going to tip people over. I think it's also important to highlight that almost all of us are part of this lottery. I think if we start asking friends and relatives, it becomes really clear, because it's really often some trauma or some series of incidents--again, not often one thing but a series of things. It doesn't take long to fall into poverty, and to fall into deep poverty, in this country now, given how easy it is to not qualify for employment insurance. Having to quickly go to what should be the last resort is too often becoming the first resort for many people.
We talked about demographic trends. We talked about the maturation of CPP and OAS, and how important that was to the question of poverty in seniors. But the other trend that's really key there is women's earnings. That's huge, and it's a demographic change that has to do with other programs related to employment equity and child care, and things that many women feel are threatened now. So in many respects the two-income families become a de facto social safety net, and if you don't fall into that, you really are vulnerable.
I want to concentrate now on federal roles, and I think there are several.
I'm conscious of the time. I'm taking a little bit longer than I thought as well.