Mr. Broadbent was specifically referencing Barack Obama, who has increased taxes on the highest level in order to pay for some of the programs, including health care.
You referenced before, Ms. Swanson, that the average income of the wealthiest share of families with children increased by more than twice as much as did family incomes for the poorest tenth of Canada's population. I just reference that.
The federal government has two reasons so far for not wanting to have an anti-poverty strategy. One is the cost, and I'll get to that. The other reason given was that it was a provincial and territorial jurisdiction. And this is the reason they rejected the UN Universal Periodic Review recommendation that we should have a national anti-poverty strategy. But we know there are specific areas where the federal government can do something. And the provinces that have an anti-poverty strategy are all calling for the federal government to have its own anti-poverty strategy in coordination with them. So I think we definitely need to have an anti-poverty strategy, and we have to look at how we allocate all of our resources.
Mr. Dickau, thank you for your presentation. One of the things I think we've missed in the last number of years is the great work the faith communities do in poverty reduction, some in small ways and some in larger ways. But in my own community, there are churches that do food banks or do clothing. And they don't think of themselves as advocates for poverty reduction; they just think of themselves as living out the word of God as they see it. They don't think they're activists.
It seems to me there are a lot of people across the country who believe in poverty reduction and who would have a lot of influence if they all came together and coordinated with anti-poverty agencies, social agencies, government, faith communities, the police, the schools, hospitals, everybody. I think the role played by faith communities is going to be increasingly important as we go forward.