Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses today for being here, for the work you do, and for sharing with us some of your thoughts. Certainly we've heard a number of very excellent suggestions here as to how we might lift people, starting with pay equity and national child care, and including housing and seniors. The list goes on and on. It's consistent with what we hear in other jurisdictions.
We just don't seem to be able to get to a place in Canada these days, though, where we actually have the political will, as has been suggested, to get even one of these done, never mind all of them. We saw in the most recent budget the taking away of the ability of women to go after pay equity. The removal of that was a regressive step, I believe.
It just indicates to you, though, the political wind that is blowing at the moment and that we need to get a handle on somehow. Of course, the response all the time is that “we can't afford to do that”. We can afford to give, minimally, $250 billion in tax relief to corporations and individuals who make very good money, but we can't afford even a percentage of that to deal with some of these issues that you've brought before us.
What we're trying to do in some part with this committee, and with some of the work we're doing around it, is change the wind and create the political atmosphere within which some of this can and will be done. I know that around this table we have some very good politicians who, by way of their participation and interaction in the discussions we've had so far, are indicating that they're certainly listening and who want to see if we can't come to a place where something can in fact be done.
I enjoyed some of your quotes, Steve. I often quote Martin Luther King. When he got the civil rights bill passed in the States, he then wanted the right for black people to vote, but he was told that he had spent all of his political capital on the civil rights piece and would have to wait a long time for the next piece. He decided that he wasn't willing to wait.
He went out into the public square in Washington and saw a lot of people walking around with their fingers in the air. They were politicians trying to figure out which way the wind was blowing in order to determine how they would vote on any given piece of legislation.
He then determined that there were really probably three kinds of politicians, although we don't all fit into one easy category. There are politicians who will always do the right thing, politicians who, when given the proper argument, when you sit down and talk with them, will see the right thing to do. Then there is that larger group of politicians who are walking around with their fingers in the air. King determined that the best thing he could do would be to “change the wind”, because then you get all of them. He started his movement. We know they're all history now.
How do we do that in Canada? I guess that's my question. How do we change the wind?
Are you connected? Churches across the country, particularly the United Church, have at their core a social justice mandate to lift people out of their own self-interest so that they can see the larger picture. there are anti-poverty groups and social justice groups.
Do you connect with people across the country and with women's groups? I know that the child care people do. I was at a wonderful gathering in Winnipeg a few years ago where they all gathered to join their energy and almost got a national child care program. That kind of fell by the wayside, but it's still there as a marker.
What do we do to change the wind?