Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague opposite for his kind words.
The Minister of Labour has been fighting poverty and abuse for 31 years. It has been her life's work. In March the Prime Minister asked her to continue her fight by co-ordinating the activities of the Government of Canada related to homelessness. The Minister of Labour has made this assignment a priority.
To assist the minister with the co-ordination of a response to homelessness, Human Resources Development Canada established a national secretariat on homelessness. The secretariat staff of 16 in total have been reassigned. They are on loan from other Government of Canada departments. They were chosen because of their expertise in homeless related issues such as housing, health and community capacity building.
The secretariat is currently compiling the comments the minister heard from the community activists, the homeless themselves and the countless frontline workers across Canada. In addition, these borrowed staffers are referencing and summarizing the information contained in the many excellent reports that have been prepared by municipalities and community based task forces. This material will help the minister in preparing her recommendations for her colleagues.
I want to make clear that the Minister of Labour did not promise to have solutions within 30 days of her appointment. When she addressed the conference in Toronto she asked participants to judge her not in two days but in two years. The only promise the minister made at that conference was a promise to meet with the mayor of Toronto, and she has fulfilled that commitment.
There are no quick fixes for homelessness. Communities, the private sector, municipalities and provinces must all be part of the solution. The Liberal government is committed to addressing the plight of the homeless. We have heard this from the Minister of Labour, in the Speech from the Throne and the fiscal update.
We are working to address the issues through various programs including youth at risk and the aboriginal jobs program at HRDC in addition to the recently augmented RRAP. The government will continue to work with all sectors, private and non-profit, and with other levels of government, to meet the immediate needs of the homeless people in Canada for the winter. We remain determined to address and to sort out the root causes of homelessness.