Evidence of meeting #45 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cost.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses today for your presentations, even though I didn't hear them. I am flying a little bit dark here.
I want to start with you, Mr. Pegg, with respect to the tax credits that have been talked about often in this committee. I spend a lot of time in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay and our priority neighbourhoods. Saint John—Rothesay, does lead the country in child poverty and in a lot of other unfortunate statistics. When you go door to door in a priority neighbourhood, or especially with those living in poverty, and talk about boutique tax credits on dancing, hockey, or that kind of thing, what's more useful, in your opinion, to single parents and parents living in poverty? Is it the Canada child benefit or is it boutique tax credits? What do you see in your food banks?
Director, Policy and Research, Food Banks Canada
We do a “HungerCount” report every year that looks at the level of food bank use in Canada and makes policy recommendations. Since about 2008, we called for rationalization of tax benefits for families. We called for tax benefits to be rolled up, and as I said, rationalized and more targeted to low-income families. We were glad to see that happen. We would have preferred that the Canada child benefit be indexed right away so it doesn't lose value over time, but we're on paper as recommending what recently happened with child benefits.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Would you say there is a profound impact of the Canada child benefit on the people who come into your food banks.
Director, Policy and Research, Food Banks Canada
I don't know if I have the knowledge to characterize it as profound or not, but it's certainly in line with what we recommended.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Ms. Guy, with regard to homelessness and shelters, I have spent a lot of time in shelters. In Saint John, there's a shelter called Outflow that our committee visited two weeks ago. My team from my MP office serve a hot breakfast there every Saturday morning. One thing that is very clear about the people—let's say 25 men—unfortunately, who are at the shelter is that these men are one good break away from changing their lives for the better.
Again, we visited probably four or five shelters in the last couple of weeks. One thing that I see that's sorely missing in shelters right across the country is the extra social assistance—social work, if you will—for the homeless and for those on the street. My heart goes out to them because these men come to the shelter, they get a meal, they sleep, they get up, and basically they are out on the streets. There is a real lack of help and support for them. I see it. There aren't enough wraparound services for these men and women who are using the shelters.
We're a committee here that is looking for recommendations from you with respect to coming up with a national poverty reduction strategy. What recommendations would you have to ensure that there is the proper support for those people who are most in need?
Director of Policy and Strategy, Canadian Association of Social Workers
I will just toss it briefly back to Mr. Pegg's comment—I think it was yours—about single, unattached people living in poverty. I think that your comments about the Canada child benefit having a profound impact are absolutely correct. Social workers on the front line see that it's literally lifting people out of poverty, making a difference in their quality of life.
Director of Policy and Strategy, Canadian Association of Social Workers
To tie it back briefly to the concept of basic income.... I think there is a lot of fear of that term, as if it's something that would be a huge program that would change our whole landscape of social services. I don't think that's what it would have to be. It could be something like what you're talking about, targeted to populations in the places where they need it, to lift people up, as you are describing, so they could start becoming part of the workforce and start accessing housing.
The other thing I would say is that what you're describing is a perfect situation where we would need support of affordable housing and the At Home/Chez Soi type of program for men like that who need a little more ongoing support to get back to the quality of life they should have.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Mr. Gladstone, we're working on a project in Saint John with the food bank—and this could maybe go to a few of you.
It's basically a social enterprise where our food bank is going to bring in people with disabilities. They're going to give them employment and training in inventory control, warehousing, and all of those essential skills that can help them with their resumés and give them the experience to go off to other jobs. We all see that there are a ton of warehousing-style jobs available, certainly in Saint John, at building supply places, Costco, or what have you. We feel that this is a perfect social enterprise that we can do. It's a win-win. It's employment. It's help for the food banks, and it's training people with disabilities.
Can you give me some comments on that kind of program and how effective you think it would be?
Head of Stakeholder Relations, Reena
I think it will be fantastic. The food service industry loves people with developmental disabilities because you can rest assured that if you need six ounces of whatever product in something, you are not getting five and change; you are getting bang on six, and cost control and everything. It will be wonderful. Reena is setting up a social enterprise, but I think that's a perfect example of things that can be done to work in the community. If we can provide any assistance in terms of job training or job coaching, please let's talk. It would be my pleasure to help out.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you very much.
I have to shut it down there.
I want to take the last two minutes to go through some housekeeping very quickly, so just bear with me.
For the record, for this committee, we've had to make some significant adjustments due to travel and some cancellations. Thursday, February 23 is going to be potentially committee business, for us to go through some stuff. March 7 is set up right now for the witnesses from Kuujjuaq, whom we didn't get to see, with regard to the poverty reduction strategies. We could not make it work within the budget to get back there, unfortunately.
We do have an opening on March 9, and Friday, March 10 we are going to be travelling to Toronto to make up the cancellation. We are going to get back to Toronto on March 10 with witnesses and site visits, again, for the poverty reduction strategy.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Monsieur Robillard, do you have a question?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Okay. We'll talk about getting coverage.
Thank you very much to all of our witnesses here today. That was a very good discussion, and a lot of people, so I'm really appreciative of everybody's keeping to time.
Thank you to all the committee members and all the folks who made today possible, the interpretation and technical folks who made us able to see you and hear you from B.C.
Have a great start to the week, everybody. The meeting is adjourned.
