Eradicating poverty is key to strengthening the Canadian economy and increasing competitiveness. It is also crucial to advancing gender equality and women's empowerment, central pillars of Canada's G7 presidency.
As the government considers a senior engagement strategy between civil society and indigenous groups to ensure that we adhere to our obligations under international covenants, we urge this committee to take very seriously the need for a robust democracy. We recommend three immediate steps the government can take to embrace inclusion and innovation in budget 2019.
First, in keeping with the United Nations sustainable development goals as well as recommendations from many United Nations treaty bodies and the universal periodic review, we recommend that Canada prioritize its first poverty strategy, “Opportunity for All”, at all levels of decision-making. Building on the government's announcement in August 2018, we recommend that this strategy be backed by investment in budget 2019. Additionally, this strategy should be supported by human rights-based legislation to be tabled this autumn, and develop claiming mechanisms for systemic discrimination for people living in poverty.
Second, we recommend that budget 2019 develop a national affordable child care framework to establish human rights standards for all levels of government, which would include an increase of federal spending on child care, with the ultimate goal of achieving the international benchmark of spending at least 1% of gross domestic product on early childhood education and care by 2020.
Third, while this government has at times lauded the value of Canada's civil society organizations at events like the W7, the on-the-ground reality is that organizations led by women, particularly those from marginalized communities who do essential work for underserved groups, face significant funding and resource challenges. Therefore, we recommend that Canada invest in women's grassroots organizations to ensure inclusivity and a more robust civil society.
We further suggest that the government track core funding for organizations composed of and led by women from diverse and marginalized communities to ensure it continues to grow in line with gross domestic product.
We look forward to answering your questions in this regard.
Thank you.