Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Not to diminish what we've just heard, the real crime sitting before this committee right now, in my opinion, is national poverty rates. The presenter Mr. Rainer talked about 20% of the cost of health care being directly related. We have an opportunity to make a significant difference in the cost to our health care, which is coming up for major debate in the next couple of years.
In Hamilton, we had a series in our local newspaper called “Code Red”. You mentioned a statistic in your brief: between one area of Hamilton that is poor and one that is more affluent, the disparity in the life expectancy rate was 21%. If we're talking about crime, that's our crime. It's a crime against the people, as far as I'm concerned.
The Social Planning & Research Council of Hamilton raised a report last Friday that talked about seniors' poverty in our community as well; there is 7.5% seniors' poverty. But the striking statistic is that women were living in poverty at two and a half times the rate for men.
So we've proposed an increase to the guaranteed income supplement. People receiving that receive approximately $15,000 a year, and the poverty rate is $22,000 a year. The government's response was $50 a month increase.
What is your response to that?