The other analogy that I had written down is that we keep on trying to put out the fire instead of preventing the fire. My question is about structure. You strike me as a person who plans. If you could build a poverty reduction strategy for Canada, what would it look like? It's more than six minutes will ever allow.... What does this thing look like? Have you built a plan that would work across Canada? You've talked about different things.
I'll explain this a bit. I'm a former teacher, and I was part of a really good school district that really was thinking outside the box. The thing that frustrates me—and Erin mentioned this—is that we keep doing things in the same way that we've always done th,. The fact that we have a literacy problem and we have kids who go to school for 12 years is bizarre to me, because they're spending all this time in school.... That's where I learned to read, so why isn't that occurring there? I see some of the things that my kids come home with. They have amazing facts that they come home with, but they can't do the simple things in life. Part of that is adaptation. That's what I'm trying to say. You need to be flexible to do things that are effective.
I would ask that you really consider building that plan and presenting it to the committee, because you have your foot in the door right now. I challenge you to give us your whole plan. If you could pull it off, what would you do?
Erin, I want to come back to you about the literacy and what I was saying about that. Again, it has always struck me. Why isn't it occurring in school now? Our kids spend so much time in school. What's your answer to that?