Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
I have a question for you, Mr. Lee. I've just been going over the website for Canada Without Poverty—I'm reading a paper and listening at the same time—and it says, “Understanding how systemic causes come together to create barriers demonstrates that poverty cannot just be solved through 'jobs' alone.” Then there's an additional paper written, Dignity for All: A National Anti-Poverty Plan for Canada.
You said that we need to retrain and retrain and retrain. I was just talking to my colleague here, and in my own life, there were times when I myself could have been considered living in poverty. Things were extremely tough in the eighties. People were losing their homes. We lived on wieners and beans and Kraft Dinner as a family. It was very difficult. I had employees, and they got paid and I didn't, because that was my responsibility as an employer.
Those were tough years—I think the interest rates went extremely high, over 20%—but we made it through hard work. As the economy changed, I re-educated and retrained. My credentials were no longer marketable, and I adapted to a change in culture.
We heard from Ms. McLachlan that she has a master's degree, and yet she has identified herself as living in poverty. Could you touch on the importance of retraining and making yourself marketable in a changing culture?