Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Certainly poverty is a most serious issue. The burden is on many of you on the ground who need to deal with that. It's not an illness, as you suggest, but an event that needs to be overcome. We appreciate the work that you do.
I do sense a measure of frustration and perhaps overtiring and overburdening that's taking place among many of you who face this head-on on the street level. I know we've heard from a number of witnesses in terms of how programs are designed, how moneys are put out there.
Sue Rickards, I appreciate your spunk and your saying that some of the off-the-wall ideas may not be so bad. Maybe we need to rethink how we're delivering some of these programs, and listen more to what's happening on the ground to ensure that we're meeting needs as opposed to funding specific area programs whether the need is there or not. I take that to heart.
Perhaps we should call this report the upside-down, inside-out report, like you were suggesting, and look at it from a different perspective. I appreciate all of your comments.
One of the specific items was how you get people out of that cycle. Some you won't, and I appreciate that. You'll need to deal with them perhaps differently. But a lot of the words that I've heard today and earlier, as well as yesterday, were about empowering many to move out of their circumstances.
I realize we need a collaborative effort from various levels of government. We need to work in harmony. We need to integrate what we're doing. What are some specific examples, Susan, that you might suggest in terms of empowering people who find themselves in circumstances to get out of them? And that's to anyone else who may want to share.
We seem to be doing well at looking at attending to the consequences of the events as opposed to preventative action. So if you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear them.