We have some slides that were handed out, in both English and French, so if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Jeff Bisanz, and I am a community co-chair of EndPovertyEdmonton. I am here today with Kate Gunn of the City of Edmonton.
As a new community-driven collective for change in Edmonton, we welcome your work toward developing a national poverty reduction strategy. We know that ending poverty is a generational effort that demands investment from all orders of government and the enthusiastic commitment of citizens. We appreciate the participation in EndPovertyEdmonton by member of Parliament Randy Boissonnault and representatives of our provincial government.
In 2014, our mayor, Don Iveson, convened a task force that has sparked a community movement to end the poverty in our city within a generation. Following two years of research, consultation, and community planning, EndPovertyEdmonton was launched to steward this work.
Edmonton has a strategy to end, not merely manage, poverty. It also has a five-year road map containing 35 starting-point actions. In December 2016, the Edmonton city council unanimously approved a significant multi-year investment to kick-start implementation of our plan, one we believe is progressive, inclusive, and maybe even visionary.
I'll mention four key features. First, we believe that how we define poverty shapes our solutions. Our indigenous round table helped us see that poverty requires a holistic approach. We define poverty not just as a lack of financial resources, but also as a lack of social and cultural resources that enable connection to community. Second, we believe that we are all treaty people, and that ending poverty is a very profound act of reconciliation. Third, we believe that ending poverty is an issue of human rights and equality. While charity is good, justice is better. We are eager to lead a human rights approach to ending poverty. Finally, we believe that we need to reframe how we see, talk about, and respond to poverty. Edmonton is therefore focused on growing a grassroots movement for change.
Our written submission includes a cornerstone recommendation, six specific areas for action, and a final capacity-building recommendation. Today, we highlight the key cornerstone recommendation and three of the six areas of recommendations.
Our cornerstone recommendation is that Edmonton be considered as a viable, ready-to-go pilot community in the tackling poverty together project. Our anti-poverty landscape is deep and engaged. We have high-level political commitment from the city and the province, robust community infrastructure in EndPovertyEdmonton, and committed investments. Our road map for action is already funded and under way. Alberta's capital city is ready and keen to be a strong case study site that illustrates a reconciliation and rights-based approach to ending poverty.
We encourage you to invest in the next generation. We know that children who grow up in poverty are often exposed to experiences and environments that disrupt healthy development and contribute to negative outcomes, such as mental and physical illness, continued poverty, criminality, and addictions. After-the-fact remediation is expensive and often not as effective as intervening earlier. Providing a supportive environment to young children and their families is not just a smart move economically; it is essential to our commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In Edmonton, we are working to develop a practical plan for an integrated system of early learning and care. We are also working with municipal, provincial, and other partners to develop policies and practices that support such a system.
At the federal level, the new Canada benefit will have a significant and positive impact on low-income families with children. We welcome further engagement by the federal government in three areas: first, improving the quality and affordability of early learning and care, as well as the number of spaces; second, developing, with the provinces, a strategy to build the well-educated workforce needed for high-quality care; and third, ensuring that research is conducted nationally to support continued improvements in learning and care.
Kate, go ahead.