Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Everything the federal government does for families right now is a result of a series of measures that were taken one after the other. You have the Canada child tax benefit and the national child benefit supplement and the income tax deductions, now that they exist, and of course

Human Resources committee  The universal child care benefit. To me, that measure doesn't work. It's not redistributed, it doesn't support child care, and it doesn't help women enter the labour market. So that would be an easy one to change.

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure about what people cook or do not cook, but I think you're right. A number of the programs that deal with nutrition, food, and everything are community-based. Maybe you will be in a position to have that, but we have a good picture of what it represents across the cou

Human Resources committee  I'm really glad you mentioned the term “social infrastructure”, because there has been lots of talk in recent weeks about investing in infrastructure. Usually when we talk about infrastructure, we think of bridges and concrete and all kinds of buildings that we need to fix and re

Human Resources committee  That is another matter. In Quebec, we are somewhat at an advantage in this respect. For historical reasons, specifically in Montreal and Quebec City, more so than in other Canadian cities, there is a considerable housing stock. Average-sized cities in Quebec have more affordable

Human Resources committee  Yes, yes.

Human Resources committee  As engaged as the community may be, the fact remains that we need to have a framework and support. For people's demands to be heard, there needs to be some legitimacy, you have to work with government. In that way, legislation can play an important role.

Human Resources committee  In the community sector there are all kinds of organizations that do that, and they receive support from the government. But there is no overall strategy. Basically, if you think about people on welfare or people close to welfare, people who are poor or near poor, their managemen

Human Resources committee  Do you have an example in mind?

Human Resources committee  You are raising a major issue, the cycle of poverty. Honestly, we don't know, but our children may one day. What we do know on the issue is through international research. Increasingly, there is a consensus emerging: the stage is set during early childhood. Almost all experts in

Human Resources committee  Okay. First, I would not call it a national policy. I would call it a Canadian or a federal policy. And I would try to make sure not to place all the provinces on the same track or within the same norms, because we don't know for sure what will work best. Yes, I would legislate

Human Resources committee  Even calling it a research centre is probably too much. It is a centre, but it's small and has few resources. Our main role--I say “our” role because I'm part of the centre's board of directors--is to advise government on indicators and to follow this advice with publications o

Human Resources committee  On the first question, when I mentioned a major increase in income it was mainly for families where there is one market income and it's supplemented by the government. My presumption is that these people know where to put their money. They tend to be still low-income families. To

Human Resources committee  I don't think there have been econometric studies on people having more children. But the integration of women into the labour market has been demonstrated in econometric studies that have controlled for all kinds of other variables. The combination of available day care--which i