Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.
I am responsible for the poverty reduction strategy at ESDC. The introduction of Canada's official poverty line, as measured by the market basket measure, was a key feature of the poverty reduction strategy.
There are a number of ways to measure poverty. For example, there's the low-income measure, which is a relative measure of distribution. There is the low-income cut-off, which is a measure that's permanently grounded in the nineties but has been brought up to date. Then there is the market basket measure. The market basket measure provides the cost of a given basket of goods in 50 different regions across the country. It is quite regionally sensitive.
As part of the work for the poverty reduction strategy, there was funding, $12.1 million, going to Statistics Canada to update, refresh and review the MBM to ensure that the basket remains relevant and that we're able to have the coverage all across the country, including in the north. Those efforts are under way at StatsCan right now, and we're looking forward to the results of that work.