Thank you very much.
I'll make some brief comments and then pass it over to our secretary general, Dr. Calvin Fraser.
I want to thank you very much for the opportunity to have the Canadian Teachers' Federation make a presentation before you. Educators, whether they are at the early childhood or tertiary level, see the faces of poverty first-hand, so it is really important that we have a voice here.
I was pleased with the wording and want to commend and thank you for guidance on presenting. Where it says “how the federal government can contribute”, that would not have been the wording 20 or 30 years ago; it would have been “if”. So I applaud you. The “how” indicates to me that there is a strong commitment, so I thank you.
You have our brief before you, and Calvin will take us through that.
The Canadian Teachers' Federation is a voluntary organization representing teacher federations across Canada and comprises about 200,000 teachers at the elementary and secondary levels. We see the poverty, and it is important that every student has the right to the full benefits of a publicly funded education. So it's not only opportunity of access; it's opportunity of outcome too.
Teachers zero in on words, and the word “hope” is on the second page. One of the things educators give to children, their parents, and their grandparents is hope for a better future for them and hope that they can reach their potential.
On the last page are the recommendations.
I'll turn it over to Calvin to take us through some of the specifics.
Thanks.