Thank you for the question.
No, I don't believe Ottawa is too far removed from these problems at all. This is a national strategy that we are supporting and that we are recommending to the federal government. Indeed, some of the provinces and territories, but not all of them, have taken it upon themselves to have a strategy in place. We believe that if we can get at the national level, where something can be put together so that all our provinces and territories can follow a strategy and at least have the same goals, that would help to eliminate poverty across Canada.
When we deal with issues at the federal level at the Canadian Teachers' Federation, we do deal with large-scale issues. We recognize, of course, that a lot can be done if you're much closer to the issue at the local provincial-territorial level. However, we advocate on the national level so that can all trickle down and that as a country we will all be on the same page.
We don't feel far removed from this at all--this is what we do at the Canadian Teachers' Federation--and we feel very strongly that a national strategy is needed to eliminate poverty. If the federal government passes a resolution to do just that, then the federal government should be stepping up to the plate. And we recommend that the federal government take a look at what we have submitted here, because every single day in our classrooms we see the effect of child poverty in front of us. That's not just in one province and that's not just in one territory; that is across this country. We see it every single day.
Some of the things we've cited for you in this brief or I have spoken about today only touch the surface. We could go very deeply into that.
So at the national level it is very important to have our national ministers, our federal ministers, looking at this and our government giving important consideration to child poverty in Canada.