Thank you.
We'd like to thank the committee for coming to Winnipeg.
The Social Planning Council is in its 90th year, and it's a membership-based, voluntary sector organization that focuses on three things: public policy advocacy, community development, and support of the voluntary and non-profit sector. We are the lead local partner of national Campaign 2000 to end child poverty.
We'd like to begin by congratulating the committee on its sixth report, which called for an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada. We were pleased this report received unanimous support in the House of Commons on November 24 and we look forward to your final report, in which I am sure you will spell out what that poverty reduction plan should look like.
We'd like to make four recommendations to you in the service of that kind of plan. We're pleased that this report and the resolution that followed it clearly acknowledge a role for the federal government in poverty reduction, and we think the federal government absolutely must show leadership if poverty reduction is going to be effective in Canada. Provinces, municipalities, aboriginal and first nations governments, the voluntary and non-profit sector, and the private sector all have their role, but this is a case where we need government leadership.
Our first recommendation is that an official poverty line be established in Canada, which is one of the few economically advanced countries that does not have an official poverty line. We think this poverty line is absolutely necessary if targets and timelines are to be established to accomplish the goal involved in your sixth report. You noted in that motion, and we agree, that we collectively were unable to fulfill the goal of the 1989 motion to end child poverty by the year 2000. We think it is absolutely necessary, therefore, that there be clear targets and interim timelines to accomplish the goal articulated in your sixth report.
We think Canada's official poverty line should be established by Parliament. There should be broad consultation with provincial and territorial governments, municipalities, first nations, and the non-government and voluntary sector. As you know, there are five possible candidates currently collected by federal government agencies. We also understand that establishing an official poverty line will be a matter than involves some controversy, but we think this is necessary and we hope you recommend it in your report.
We would like to make two further notes. One is that poverty lines and poverty measurement are not unique in terms of the controversy that involves them. Economists still disagree about measures of unemployment and, for that matter, about measures for economic growth, yet we report unemployment rates and the gross domestic product.
The second thing we would note is that action on poverty reduction does not have to await adoption of an official poverty line. As the United Kingdom did, we could use any or all of the existing poverty lines to benchmark where we are now and to see progress until an official poverty line is adopted. We don't want a poverty measurement debate to replace action on poverty reduction, yet we do think it will be useful to have an official poverty line.
In Manitoba and throughout Canada, many poor children live in families in which the parents work the equivalent of a full year, full time. Much poverty is created within the labour market rather than outside it. In Manitoba, almost 70% of poor children live in families where there is the equivalent of full-time, full-year work.
We think the federal government needs to show leadership. We are therefore recommending that the federal government adopt a living wage policy with regard to its suppliers and contractors. One of the conditions of contracting and selecting suppliers would be that living wages are paid to the employees of those firms and organizations. A living wage is generally higher than a legislated minimum wage. It includes sufficient resources for a family to participate in their community and even to assemble some of the assets necessary for retirement and the education of children. We think that by pursuing this policy the federal government would be demonstrating vision as well as leadership.
Our third recommendation is that Canada should revive the Population Health Fund, which has not accepted applications since 2006. We believe the federal government has an important role to play in supporting the health and well-being of Canadians—health promotion as opposed to the provision of health care. From all of the evidence we've heard, poverty is an important determinant of health, and the Population Health Fund helped many community organizations to do their share in defeating poverty. In Winnipeg, many organizations were started or had their capacity enhanced through the Population Health Fund: the Andrews Street Family Centre, the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre, the West Central Women's Resource Centre, the North Point Douglas Women's Centre, and the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre in The Pas. We think this would be in line with the federal government's business of supporting the functioning of the national economy and the health of Canadians.
Finally, we would like to reiterate a recommendation from Campaign 2000, that the Canada child tax benefit and the national child benefit supplement be increased to a maximum of $5,400 in 2009 dollars. The National Child Benefit Progress Report, issued in 2006, indicated that the national child benefit at that point prevented 59,000 families and 125,000 children from falling into poverty. The poverty rate for families would have been 12.1% higher without it. The architecture is right. The investment needs to increase. There's a good instrument there that can make a real difference.
Thank you.