Thank you very much, chair and members of the committee. It really is a pleasure to be here.
I'm going to provide a bit of broad context on the government's poverty reduction strategy just to set the table for my colleagues, so to speak, who will also talk about this important issue in some depth.
As you are aware, the government has committed to developing a poverty reduction strategy that will set targets to reduce poverty, and to measure and publicly report on that progress. As you also know, poverty reduction strategies are not uncommon in Canada. Provinces, territories, and municipalities already have strategies, and for the Government of Canada it will be important to build on their progress in this area.
As a first step, a discussion paper towards the poverty reduction strategy was tabled on October 4 before this committee by Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. You may recall that the purpose of this paper is to provide a frame for our forthcoming discussions and a national dialogue on the subject of poverty reduction in Canada. It is a truly collaborative effort, so I'd like to thank my colleagues who are here, because they played a very important role in the development of that dialogue paper and I think the panel is entirely appropriate to discuss these important issues.
The paper explores the various dimensions of poverty: income, housing, employment, education, health, and inclusion. It also talks about the groups that are more at risk of living in poverty, called vulnerable groups because they are more vulnerable to poverty.
Overall, I think the message of the paper is that poverty is a complex issue and its solution will require a multi-dimensional approach. One thing that comes through—and I think it'll be an important topic today—is the connection between poverty and health, which moves in both directions. When individuals live in poverty, they are more likely to experience poor health; and at the same time, when individuals are in poor health, they're more likely to experience poverty than those who are in good health. It becomes more difficult to attend post-secondary education, to participate in one's community, and to secure a job.
While the connection is multi-faceted and complex, an important factor in reducing poverty will be supporting Canadians with mental health issues. My own department has a number of programs that either directly or indirectly support individuals with mental health issues. There's the homelessness partnering strategy. The link and the relationship between mental health and living in homelessness is well documented. We also provide income support programs such as employment insurance sickness benefits and the Canada pension plan disability program.
As for the next steps in the poverty reduction strategy, one of the things that we're doing is an important project called the tackling poverty together project. This will be rolling out via case studies in six communities across Canada: Saint John; Trois-Rivières; Toronto, Regent Park; Winnipeg; Yellowknife; and Tisdale.
One of the real purposes of this project is to speak to people with the lived experience of poverty, to understand what's working, what's not, and what could be improved. As we talk to the people with the lived experience of poverty, mental health issues will undoubtedly come to the fore.
We're also developing a longer term public engagement strategy, which we hope to launch shortly. Again, we'll be speaking with experts through round tables, but we'll also be speaking to people with the lived experience of poverty, people who are experiencing it on the ground; and we'll undoubtedly be hearing about the link between mental health and poverty in Canada.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the committee for inviting us here, and I'll turn it over to my colleagues in Statistics Canada to provide a statistical overview of mental health in Canada.