Good evening. Thank you for the chance to be here today.
As the committee knows, on August 21, 2018, the government released “Opportunity for All - Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy”. The poverty reduction act included in the BIA legislates the commitments made in that strategy. The legislation proposes to set an official measure of poverty: Canada's official poverty line.
Canada's official poverty line is based on the cost of a basket of goods and services that individuals and families require to meet their basic needs and achieve a modest standard of living in communities across the country. This will provide the government with a measure of poverty to track progress towards the strategies to concrete targets for poverty reduction by 2020, reducing the poverty rate by 20% from its 2015 level and, by 2030, reducing the poverty rate by 50% from its 2015 level.
These targets have been included in the legislation. Also included in the legislation is the national advisory council on poverty. The advisory council, should the legislation pass, will have the mandate to advise the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development on poverty reduction and to table a report in Parliament each year on the progress that has been made towards poverty reduction.
Thank you.