Thank you, Chair, and thanks to all the panellists. There was some very good stuff.
Mr. Dennison, I'm not going to ask you questions. Your ten observations about equalization were very well laid out. I agree with just about everything you've put there. People haven't come and talked to us much about equalization, so I appreciate the contribution of the business council.
Gayle, when I talk to you, I feel as though I have to speak really quickly to get my question in, just to be on the same page. You mentioned Dostoevsky, who said, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” In the House last week, I referenced Mahatma Gandhi's comment: “A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” I think that's particularly apropos.
One of the ways this committee can be effective is to make a recommendation to the Minister of Finance about how we can bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. My question to a number of you--Paul, Chris, and Susan--who work with some of the people in society who need a hand up and aren't able to maximize their full potential, is how best we can do that. The government has tinkered around with taxes. You mentioned the social determinants of health, Paul, poverty being the number one social determinant of health. The government has come forward with a plan to give a tax credit for kids, for example, to have sportsplex memberships and things like that.
Is that an effective way to do it, or do we need to invest directly in the infrastructure, whether it's human infrastructure or physical infrastructure? That's number one.
Second, Susan mentioned child care. Is the $1,200 a year an effective way to build child care?
So there are two things, and I'll start with Chris.