Thank you very much. It's just about a minute.
I mentioned the technical challenges. Many of them have to do with issues surrounding unreported income; additional issues relate to data and Statistics Canada. I'll simply refer you to my latest paper, which is due to be published next month.
On the political side, I really don't have to tell you folks the kind of opposition you're going to get if you embark on a serious attempt to measure the number of people who just cannot afford basic needs. For whatever reason, some folks just don't want that to happen, and I just hope that parliamentarians have the courage and the rational arguments to resist that.
The basic needs measure that I've developed should be helpful if you decide to measure the extent of real deprivation in Canada. This measure essentially takes the cost of a basket of basic needs in different parts of Canada for families of different sizes and sets up those costs as poverty lines.
As I mentioned just a moment ago, I really would urge you to resist the temptation to bulk up the poverty line by adding things like recreation items and vacations and so on. The critical issue here is not that the poor shouldn't have these things--of course they should--the question is whether people are impoverished for lack of them. I think there's great value in determining how many people just can't afford even the basic needs; to add more onto the poverty line would simply muddy the waters. I would urge you to choose a credible poverty measure and stick to it.
Those are my comments.