Thank you very much.
Very briefly, according to my experience, the departmental officials are right, in a way; Canada really is looked at as a model for the CPP and the way it works. One of the reasons it works really well is that it does have those particular features in it that address a lot of women's needs, like the child-rearing dropout. As Robert mentioned, it doesn't work perfectly, but like credit-splitting, there are ways that it could be improved. Because it has those kinds of features, it really does offer some advantages that a lot of other government pension plans don't in other parts of the world, and advantages, certainly, that most private pension plans don't.
Evidently, as well, there are areas in there to work on. If some things are working really well, you look at those as models and see how you can make them work better.
In terms of poverty among immigrant women, I'm sure there are others who could talk to this better; there are so many issues. A lot of it has to do, for example, with foreign credentials, the ability of immigrant women coming into Canada to be able to get employment in the fields that will get them a decent income.
If I understand correctly, there also seems to be quite a gap amongst immigrant women. Some come in very highly skilled and do really well; others don't. Another trend I've heard people talk about is that for a lot of immigrant women, even though it shows that their economic situation looks not bad in terms of income, it's often because they're working two, three, and four jobs. So there's a lot going on there to look at, and I think you need to look at a lot of statistics underneath the major trends.
In terms of the plan of action, this was, again, a major subject of discussion at the council meeting, and the beginnings of something that we're really hoping to launch, to develop in more detail, to consult with some other organizations and other Canadians on. I think a lot of the inspiration we got in Quebec City was from listening to what the collectif described to us. We invited them to meetings and they described the efforts of a whole coalition of groups in Quebec for a poverty-free Quebec, and the law they have in place, the plans they have in place to develop a set of indicators, some very specific goals. Our council has been in existence since 1965, and, to my knowledge, theirs is the only other council that's been created in Canada. There's also some really interesting work going on in Newfoundland, and we hope to look more closely at that. Some of the work that John and I and Cathy did, going into the council meeting, was looking at what's happening in other countries. The United Kingdom and a lot of the European countries are developing that.
It's pretty basic; if you want to get something done, you figure out what needs to get done and who's going to do it, and you assign the resources. But there has to be some more accountability for that to happen.