Thank you.
Thank you for your fine presentations. They have certainly been very informative.
I have three areas of questions. I'm going to put them all out, because I know my time is limited, and I'll let you manage the time in the responses.
You talked about the fact that there is no official government-mandated poverty line here in Canada. How do you analyze not only the incidence of poverty but the depth of poverty? How poor are the poor, and how long are they poor? Do you do that kind of analysis? So that's one line of questioning.
Second, I was particularly interested, Mr. Dobie, in your comments about pension reform. I was surprised to hear you say that many do not take up the mandated pension-splitting for the Canada Pension Plan. You also raised something that a number of us have talked about for a period of time, which is the importance of a mandated pension-splitting of other government-supported pensions, like RRSPs and employment pensions, which are supported through the tax system. Are you aware of any studies that have been done on that or of advocacy that has been done in that area?
My third area of questioning relates to aboriginal women or seniors. I look at the poverty rates you have here, and the rate is high as it relates to aboriginal women. What it seems to say, though, comparing the two graphs, is that many more aboriginal seniors live in a family setting, or move into a family setting, than perhaps do other groups. I don't know whether that's fair or not, but I'm interested to know if there are any studies.
The time is short, I know, but I'll leave it to the four of you to manage in terms of the responses.