Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to speak on behalf of Humanity First on poverty reduction recommendations. I'm representing the executive director, Dr. Aslam Daud. He was unable to make it due to some work obligations.
I will take all of the questions that were given to us, one by one.
In terms of poverty measures, Humanity First believes that every human being has the right to shelter, food, health, and education. Anyone deprived of these basic rights due to financial constraints falls under the definition of poverty. With us, the measuring scale would be income, financial resources, living conditions, and education.
The second question inquired about the role of the federal government in poverty reduction programs. Humanity First dreams of a Canada where no person goes to sleep without food, no one is without a roof, and education is a right, not a privilege for the rich only. Eyes and teeth are part of a human body and should receive health care. The federal government can play both short-term and intermediate roles; as well, a long-term strategy can be introduced.
For the short-term and intermediate roles, the federal government should support community organizations by using them on the front line to identify poverty affected cases, such as food banks, immigrant services, and income and housing community services. Through them, they can provide assistance for shelter, food, health care, and education. As a long-term strategy, accessibility to education and skills training programs should be improved. Also, it should provide increased opportunities for placement of successfully trained individuals, especially those who belong to low-income families or who fall under the poverty line. Various incentives can be offered to motivate people to join the skills training programs. The education system can be revamped to further subsidize university education to make it more affordable for less fortunate students.
For question number three, on federal-provincial-territorial cooperation or collaboration to reduce poverty, our perspective is that a joint project should be launched to improve the education and training programs across Canada. College and university education should be subsidized to 100%. We need homelessness prevention strategies, including improvement in social housing initiatives or subsidized housing initiatives. Programs introduced by one government should have a legislative protection to secure their sustainability from the change of the government.
We need to create green jobs by funding public employment in the new emerging trends of solar energy, wind energy, and recycling. All of these emerging trends, which are in the air at the moment, should be launched with solid foundations and should introduce more employment opportunities.
Question number four asked if this joint federal-provincial-territorial response is necessary to meet poverty reduction targets, and what the targets should be. This joint response is extremely important to meet poverty reduction targets. This would result in a comprehensive strategy and cover loopholes that leave borderline cases vulnerable. The targets can be reducing child poverty by 50% in five years, and a 100% reduction of homelessness in five years.
The next question asked what more should the federal government do to reduce poverty, specifically among children, single parents, women, aboriginals, and persons with disabilities. Humanity First recommends legislation should be in place that can ensure guaranteed funds for children. That legislation should have a mechanism to prevent abuse of such funds. For example, money should be spent on programs that directly benefit child health, education, sustenance, and upbringing.
We should also encourage self-help groups for lone parents, women, and other vulnerable populations. Then we need to create micro-economies like small business and home business programs. The government itself becomes the client of such businesses, thereby ensuring guaranteed success of the businesses.
The next question asks how the federal government's contribution to reducing poverty should be measured and reported, and which indicators can be used. Poverty reduction should be measured and reported regularly by solid statistics, such as numbers of people who have benefited directly through these strategies, the number of people who are no longer homeless, and the number of people who are now employed after long-term unemployment. It can also be measured by the number of children who moved from below the poverty line to above the poverty line, the increasing number of students going to university, and the review of poverty reduction programs and their specific results.
Question seven was on how to deploy current resources more effectively. Humanity First believes the current federal resources for reducing poverty should be deployed through programs that are very specific and targeted to the grassroots level. Unfortunately, a major portion of the fund is used in bureaucracy by agencies in the middle. Grassroots-level groups should be formed consisting of that population only, and their needs may be defined directly with their consultation and should be addressed at their level instead of having a general national program. Second, a higher tax should be applied to multi-million-dollar individual income brackets. Last, a higher tax should be applied to gaming and gambling businesses and wins.
What is Humanity First doing in these trends?
Humanity First is a non-profit charitable organization, which provides disaster relief and human development services across the globe. We are from the Canadian chapter of Humanity First. We offer food banks and immigrant consultant services. The Our Children Our Future program is for tutoring, funding, and sponsoring children and schools. With the gift of vision, we sponsor individuals for glasses. There are employment referrals. Internationally we have orphan care, water wells, and vocational training programs.
Thank you very much. I know my time is up.