Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for the excellent work he does in his riding, in Winnipeg, and more generally in Manitoba and across the country.
Poverty is certainly an area of concern for our government. As I just mentioned, 825,000 people have been lifted out of poverty since we took office and the poverty rate has dropped by 20%. However, the important thing is that, in this bill, the government is recognizing for the first time the importance of establishing an official poverty line in Canada.
It is important to have data so that we can monitor the issue and develop good public policies to counter the effects of poverty. We are going to set up the national advisory council on poverty so we can monitor the situation and continue to take effective action in this regard.