Human Resources committee  The council provides advice to the minister in a number of ways. Sometimes we meet with her. The other way we provide information is to publish the two regular reports we publish. They're basically statistical reports with some indication of recommendations in them. One is Poverty Profile, which provides the most comprehensive look at the dimensions of poverty in this country.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Very briefly, yes, in response to your comment about some of the tax exemptions and some of the measures that may help the working poor, certainly, as you've said, any small bit helps, and they're in the right direction. I think the council's preoccupation now is that while all of those small bits help, what is really going to be needed to meet the challenges of low-income people for the future is a much more comprehensive look so that those measures and others can be built together in a much more comprehensive system.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I'd like to comment on a couple of things and link this back to a previous question as well. One of the things that I think it's really important to highlight is that there are a lot of studies that really show the link between the outcomes of children and the education of their parents, especially their mothers.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. My apologies, right off the bat. I can't give you specific examples now. That's a bit outside the council's mandate. As I mentioned in the brief, the social economy initiatives are sort of multi-faceted because they allow for community development to meet community needs.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The National Council of Welfare is very happy to present this brief on a topic that is very closely linked to its mandate. The National Council of Welfare is an independent advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development on matters of concern to low-income Canadians.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. By waving my arms, I had meant to indicate that the decision was yours, not--

Status of Women committee  I'll answer the first bit very quickly and let John talk about budget impact. I have, what, 20 seconds left now? Yes, a guaranteed annual income would address a number of things, I think, as long as it's developed so that it understands unpaid work and recognizes that women, even if they're in the workforce full time, still have to look after their children when they come home and on weekends and all of those things.

Status of Women committee  If I might just add one more word--John wanted to say something too--I'm reminded that in the council publications, including the ones we've distributed to you, there are some very specific recommendations on things that we would certainly encourage you to look at, specifically around child care, around the child tax benefit, the clawback issues.

Status of Women committee  It's not something we have specifically looked at. We didn't introduce ourselves at the beginning, but there's a little flyer that's going around.... We're a very small council. It's not an area we've looked specifically at.

Status of Women committee  We'll certainly note that and take it to the membership.

Status of Women committee  It's a....

Status of Women committee  Well, it's a tall order. What strikes me most about the work that we put together, to pull out very specific things related to women from the overall work that the council's doing, is that you really do have to take a life cycle approach. That what jumps out most, that if you're looking at any area of poverty, you can't take one population or one moment in time.

Status of Women committee  For us, it is the minister of Human Ressources and Social Development. It was a little bit prior to my time. I was with the council before, and I've just come back. At the March meeting of the council members in Ottawa, they met with the minister. And we expect that we will meet with her again in October.

Status of Women committee  I agree that it's hard to get at the direct costs of poverty, but what this document, which we've copies of in English and French, has done is put together a compilation of different studies in Canada and the United States that show very clearly what the costs of poverty are, but also that there are remedies that involve significant investments up front, but that end up paying off tremendously afterwards.

Status of Women committee  Thanks. That's a very interesting question. As you said, it is a provincial jurisdiction. On the specific question of whether the National Council of Welfare has been involved in schools in that regard, I can't say with any certainty, but I think probably not. What the council does do, though, is put out a lot of information that's used within the school system.