I'd like to welcome everybody. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we're going to continue our study of the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada.
Here we are at our first meeting on the road, in Halifax. I want to thank all our witnesses for being here today. We're looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I also want to welcome to the committee Megan Leslie, who doesn't need welcoming to Halifax, and the rest of my colleagues who are here today.
We're going to get started. I believe you each have a five-minute opening statement, and then we'll just go around. We have an hour and a half, so we have lots of time to ask questions. If your opening statement happens to be a little bit more than five minutes, I think we'll be okay with that.
We'll start with Andrew Waugh, who is here from Nova Scotia Legal Aid.
Welcome, and the floor is yours.