Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to all the witnesses. It's been an interesting round.
To the folks who eloquently described the problem with poverty, I want to express...and reassure you that the government cares intimately about poverty, which is why we have some programs in place like At Home/Chez Soi, which in my part of the world, Winnipeg, has helped 600 homeless people with a home. It's a housing-first approach that doesn't just give them a house.
This is a Conservative government initiative, but it's not only that. The Mental Health Commission of Canada helps us to do these things, and there is a significant amount of funding that goes to it. There are things such as the Nutrition North program, which is reducing prices for our northerners, which is absolutely essential to helping end poverty, and things such as improving employment opportunities for our people with disabilities, because they typically are vulnerable.
I have to do a plug here. There is a call for proposals open right now for organizations that can connect people with disabilities with jobs. These are initiatives by this Conservative government. There are things like cutting taxes in 140 ways. That has helped people who are under the line of poverty to get over the line of poverty.
Increasing the GIS for seniors is tremendously beneficial to our seniors who are living under the poverty line. As a result of the measures taken by this Conservative government, 380,000 seniors have been lifted or removed from the tax roll.
As well, I'll tell you we are doing a charity study. We haven't finished the report, but it is this government that has made all of the moves toward tax advantages for charities so they can continue to do good work to help people who face poverty. The ThirdQuarter project came out of pre-budget consultations, and that is a project run out of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce to help connect seniors with jobs.
All else aside, I want to reassure you that it is on our agenda and it is something that's important. I don't want to leave you with the impression that it's not important. It doesn't matter who voted for it or who didn't vote for it; what matters is the outcome, and the outcome has been very positive.
Having said all of that, I need to table something before I proceed. I don't want to run out of time.
I would like to table a copy of the platform from the NDP, which says, “We will put a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system” and says on page 4 that revenues by year for that are $21.5 billion, because we will not be called—I'm not going to use the word. We will not be told we're misleading. I'd like to table it for the committee. I didn't appreciate the comments made by Mr. Mai.
Let's get back to the facts. In your submission you mentioned your science cluster program. I wonder if you can tell me what the successes of the science cluster program have been.