Thank you very much, and thank you all.
A number of you have referenced the resolution that came to the House of Commons last week on the twentieth anniversary of the parliamentary declaration of intent that child poverty should be eliminated by 2000. I think it was an important resolution to bring to the House, and it reflects the work of this committee. If we're going to establish a report that is all the things that it needs to be, and there's lots of advice from people like yourselves who see people and live the experience, and we've got lots of advice from other people who are sort of expert in this area, then it does have to be a meaningful report. It can't only be a declaration that we have to do something. I think we have to make some specific recommendations.
One of the issues that has to be addressed is the issue of taxation. I want to read you something that the Minister of Finance read into the House of Commons, I think around the time of the budget a couple of years ago:
Every dollar saved from lower interest payments will be returned to Canadians through personal income tax reductions. More money staying in Canadians’ pockets, and less money lost to interest payments. That’s our Canada.
Mr. Chairman, I hear it at the hockey arena, I hear it at the coffee shops, I hear it from people on the street: “taxes in Canada are way too high”. Is that your Canada? Is that what you think? I've got to tell you, we have had some success in reducing taxes over the last number of years, but it hasn't improved the lives of people living in poverty very much, I don't think. So I'd like to ask Stephanie, or perhaps Jean, do you think taxes in Canada are too high?