Sure. Thank you.
I think we have some broad recommendations, which include a designated federal poverty reduction plan that complements what the provinces and territories have been doing; a federal anti-poverty act, and, Mr. Martin, you've introduced a private member's bill that certainly embodies key commitments; and sufficient federal funding to programs that would include a decent standard of living. We also have a specific recommendation for this budget, but I'll address your other question first.
The committee should know or recall that even before the full impact of the recession in 2008, more than three million people lived in poverty in this country. Almost one in ten are children, and that doesn't even include the shameful situation of first nations, where one in four children live in poverty. You've asked what the cost is, and obviously there are costs to individual children and their families and tremendous costs to all of us.
A group of economists worked with the food banks last year in Ontario. They actually did some projections and calculations about the costs, and for Canada they estimated that the cost of poverty is between $17 billion and $20 billion each year in terms of increased health care costs, which of course is something we are all paying close attention to; lost productivity as a result of people not being able to be in the workforce for a number of reasons, whether it's accommodation for people with disabilities, reliable and affordable child care for lone-parent families, or whatever it is; and as well, the cost of the criminal justice system, for everything from policing to courts to incarceration to victims' expenses.
Those were the large costs across the country. So I think it behooves us all to take seriously the need for investments.
With regard to the issue of taking the charitable sector route versus a broader one--let's call it a universal public policy route--I work for one of the largest charities in Canada, Family Service Toronto. There's no doubt about the fact that the services we provide are important, but they're no substitute for public policies that not only support low-income people but prevent people from falling into poverty.
As well, I want to say just a couple of things. The fallout from the recession remains today for many Canadian families. Household debt is at an all-time high, and as the Canadian Payroll Association recently reminded us, or surveyed, six out of ten employees reported that they'd have trouble making ends meet if one paycheque was late.
So I think we have to look at preventive strategies as well as strategies to help lift out of poverty those who are in poverty now. We have a ready-made solution that can be implemented in next year's budget, and that will certainly help many people. We want to see you commit to increase the Canada child tax benefit and the national child benefit, the combination, to $5,400 over the next three years.
The Government of Canada's own research has shown that the national child benefit supplement for low- and modest-income families prevented 59,000 families with 125,000 children from living in low income.... So it has a solid track record, it's efficient to administer, and it's clearly in the federal jurisdiction. There's something you could do: a very specific recommendation that would assist many children and their families in this country.
Let me say that as Canada's population declines slightly and our aging population increases, we all benefit from strategic investments, as some of the economic projections have shown, particularly those that bolster children's health and development and help to prepare them to become our future citizens, parents, workers, and taxpayers.
