That's an excellent question. Thank you very much.
Let me start by recommending to the committee that if you haven't already looked at this document that was created by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, published in 2004, called Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework, it really does a nice job of looking at human rights and poverty reduction and looking at the connection between the two. A really important element in that is the principle of progressive realization, because when we look at these human rights covenants that Canada has signed onto, it speaks about how governments will work to progressively realize each of these rights. I think a key starting point for poverty reduction legislation is to clearly link the reason Canada is making this commitment to reduce and eradicate poverty in Canada: it's a fulfillment of our human rights commitments.
I'm glad to say that Quebec's legislation does name the human rights commitments that Quebec and Canada are signatories to as a foundation for that, so that would be the first element.
The second one is to clearly state that the objective is a poverty-free Canada.
Another key thing would be to link it to social exclusion, because poverty is one facet of what we need, getting out of poverty and having a decent standard of living, just living a full life in dignity. People are excluded from full participation in many ways, whether in the workforce or in community organizations, so the legislation should also speak to social exclusion and creating a more inclusive Canada.
The legislation should stipulate that the federal government bring in an action plan every several years to move forward on progressively realizing more of those rights. It is about reducing income poverty, but also making sure that people are not in core housing need and people are not living on the streets, that people have access to the highest standards of mental and physical health, access to education, food security, all those elements. There needs to be an action plan, which should be updated every couple of years.
I mention this because the Quebec legislation specifies this. The Ontario legislation does. Every country in the European Union updates its action plan for reducing poverty and social exclusion every two years. Our legislation should say the same.
There should be annual public reporting on the progress on the goals that are included in this strategy. Again, that report should talk about the outcome indicators on a full range of the strategy and the rights as well as the policy effort indicators. What has the government committed to do? How effective has it been? Those kinds of things.
There should be an interministerial committee, as in Newfoundland and Labrador, to make sure that efforts taken in one ministry are consistent with what goes on in other ministries.
The legislation should also stipulate that federal laws, regulations, and programs should be reviewed for their impact on poverty reduction. Any time a new piece of legislation or change in policy is brought in, it should look at the impact on poverty reduction. Will it have an impact, and what should that impact be?
There should be an independent review of the poverty reduction strategy. This is one thing we tried to get in the Ontario legislation. We were not able to do that. But the European Union includes independent reviews every year of all their strategies.
The last thing I would mention is the importance of an advisory body as in Quebec's legislation. I would point to a body like the National Council of Welfare, which already exists, that could serve that role, as well as organizations like Canada Without Poverty, which is made up of people living on low incomes.
Those 10 elements would be key for poverty reduction.
Thank you.