Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the study of the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada will commence now.
I want to thank our witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to be here today. You may or may not know that we have been studying this issue of poverty across the country. We went to the east coast last year and then we had a break over the summer. We are glad that we are getting out to the west now and talking to people, where we can make some recommendations back to the government. Once again, we appreciate your taking time to be here.
When Ms. Small shows up we'll give her a chance to read into the record some of her comments.
Mr. Stewart, I'm going to start with you and we'll just go across for seven minutes each. After all the comments are made by the witnesses we'll have a chance to go around the room to ask some questions.
If you have briefs that haven't been translated, we'll make sure those get out to the members in due course. I'm going to just leave it at that.
We'll probably have time for one round of questioning. If we have more time, we'll certainly do what we have time for up to ten o'clock.
Mr. Stewart, thank you for being here once again. You're from the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee. The floor is yours. You have seven minutes.