Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to all four of you.
I would like to answer a question that was not asked clearly. Since all the parties are here, I want to emphasize that the work we are doing here on poverty is a long-term effort involving a lot of branches. The result of this work will be a report containing recommendations that will be tabled not only in the House, but also with the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, from whom we expect an answer. I simply wanted to provide that piece of information for certain individuals who may not be very familiar with the process.
I'm going to ask some perhaps well-targeted questions, but I won't put them to anyone in particular. Answer them if you think you have something to add.
First of all, I wonder about the minimum wage. Even if the federal government increased the minimum wage, that would affect only a small part of the federal government workforce. Can you imagine the importance of increasing the minimum wage through the Canada Labour Code, which would obviously have much greater impact on the general public?
Second, I would like to talk about the importance of the NGOs in the fight against poverty. This issue concerns everyone. I don't know how it is for the people on the other side of the House, but on this side, on the opposition side, a lot of us have already worked in cooperation with the NGOs and, in some cases, for NGOs and non-profit organizations.
Let's talk about the financial relationship that the federal government has with non-profit organizations. If we wanted to suggest ways of helping the non-profit organizations that have already proven themselves in the fight against poverty, what could the federal government do to help those organizations do a better job and more effectively enter the field?
Those are two very specific questions.