Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), our study on the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada will continue. This is meeting number 27, our fourth one here today in Moncton.
We want to thank all our witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to be here.
We've been looking at this issue over the last number of months in Ottawa. We were in Halifax yesterday. Today, obviously, we're in Moncton. Tomorrow we're going to be in Montreal. We're taking the opportunity to travel around the country a bit to find out what's working on the ground, some programs that may be being done or may be effective in local organizations, and also to get feedback from people in terms of making recommendations to the committee to do a better job of addressing this issue, which I'm sure you all realize is very complicated. Not one solution fits everything. People need to work together. A whole bunch of issues follow.
My name is Dean Allison. I'm from Ontario, from the Niagara region. I'm glad to be here today. My father was from New Brunswick, my mother from Nova Scotia. I feel as if I'm coming home a little bit. How does that sound?
Our first round will be seven minutes. Our second round will be five minutes. We will try to move through the questions and answers as quickly as possible.
I'll start over here, Susan, if that's okay. We'll take five minutes for each presentation, then go across. I have a timer here, just to give you an idea of where the five minutes are. If you've got more to say, you can try to wrap it up. Certainly I'm not going to cut you off. I'll let you tell us what you need to tell us. Once we've gone through everybody speaking, then we'll do the rounds of questions.
I think we've got all the ground rules out of the way. Thank you once again.
Susan Crouse, I believe you are from the Salvus Clinic. Thank you very much for being here. I don't know if you're going to talk about some of the organizations you're with. Certainly if you are, we'd love to hear a bit about what everyone is involved with. If that's not part of your presentation, please feel free to give us a few words on what you're doing.
Susan, welcome. The floor is yours.