We're a non-partisan organization, so we meet with politicians of all parties and senior bureaucrats, and we have done so a number of times over the years. Our material is publicly available, and we encourage political parties to use it in their platforms and to adopt our policy recommendations.
I haven't worked with them for 18 years, but I know from meetings that have happened in the past that our work has had input. It has been reflected sometimes in throne speeches, in the design of some programs, in terms of the feedback that we provide around programs like the Canada child tax benefit, and on the clawback issue. So I think we have had some input, certainly also around the development of the national child care program and those agreements that were in place. At the end of this fiscal year, there were some discussions there.
While the child poverty rate has not declined, our work does show that government programs do make a difference. In fact, if we did not have the programs that we do, the rate would be around 24%. I can only say that we'll continue our work--both our policy work and our advocacy work--building on the research that we do, in terms of what has worked in other countries in northern Europe that have significantly lower child poverty rates.