Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to present my submission to the committee. My name is Michael Creek, and I am the coordinator of Voices from the Street.
Over the last few years, Voices from the Street has played an active role in making sure that those with the lived experience of poverty, homelessness, and disabilities have a voice. Often socio-economic factors and social exclusion keep us from having our voices heard. I know the damage that poverty inflicts; my life for 13 years was shackled to the chains of poverty. I see the damage it has done to individuals each day, not just here in Toronto, but across the province and across this country.
In Canada we have over 3.5 million people living in poverty. In Ontario it is 1.3 million, and in Toronto over 600,000 citizens struggle with poverty every day. Poverty makes many of us second-class citizens, abandoned and left to find our own way out, stripped of opportunity and choice, and often denied our human rights as citizens.
Several of our provincial governments have recognized that poverty reduction and poverty elimination starts with a plan and have come forward with poverty reduction strategies, but for us to succeed in Ontario and for the other provinces to be successful, we need our federal government to play its role.
We believe the Ontario government has started in the right direction. Ontario's poverty reduction is not enough, though; we need our federal government to provide leadership and become a full partner in fighting poverty.
We can have a poverty-free Ontario. We can have a poverty-free Canada. Each of us in this room and throughout our country has a dream, a wish, and a goal of how we want our country to look. We cannot make poverty illegal, but as citizens we have a moral responsibility and an obligation to no longer sit idly by as others find their lives smothered in the ugliness of poverty and social exclusion.
I can imagine a Canada that would no longer allow our aboriginal first nations to languish in poverty and social exclusion. I can imagine a country that will not allow those with a disability to be cast aside to a life sentence of poverty. As Canadians we have far too many of our citizens condemned to poverty because they are disabled. Can you imagine having to live your life in poverty because you are disabled?
These challenges are not without answers. I can imagine a country that allows each of us a safe place that we can call home, a country that is free of poverty. I can imagine a stronger, healthier province that is equitable and fair and a Canada that deals with socio-economic issues as a priority for a country that is moving forward.
Over these last two days you have heard from many in our community. Those who are experts in the field have included the relevant facts, figures, and studies that show we are falling behind as a nation. Many different organizations and individuals have made presentations to your committee, all with the same plea: the need for our federal government to step up to the plate and start leading the country forward.
Today being National Hunger Awareness Day, let us feel the pain of hunger; let us feel the pain of our fellow citizens, who hunger not just for nutrition but to be full citizens in our country.
I leave you with this message as you continue to consult across this country: hear the voices of those with a lived experience of poverty. You can't miss us. We're on every street corner in every small town, village, and city from north to south to east to west, from sea to sea. The number of Canadians living in poverty grows with each passing day. Will we have the courage to no longer allow this injustice to continue to rob our country of so many citizens who live and die in poverty? The cost of not fighting poverty in Canada is a cost that not one of us can afford. We are weaker as people and we are weaker as citizens and we are weaker as a nation when we leave so many behind.
Thank you.