Mr. Chair, as I said earlier, as Canadians we have certain understandings about what it is to be Canadian, what we expect of and for ourselves and what we expect of and for others. We expect the opportunity of a full and rewarding life, but for some that does not happen easily. We can do more for families and children, for persons with disabilities and our most vulnerable seniors, for aboriginal Canadians and for recent immigrants.
Despite the economic gains we have made over the last decade, many of our fellow Canadians remain in need. Many, whether holding a full time job or never able to work at all, struggle to make ends meet every day, so where can we go from here?
Almost 10 years ago our nation came to an important consensus that helping families with children was a top priority, and from that consensus of government, citizens, communities and businesses alike was born the national child benefit, what has been described as the most important development in social policy since medicare.
Every year we provide income support to help 2.7 million Canadians and 1.5 million Canadian families, yet even with the NCB, even as we continue to put in place the conditions necessary to improve a child's standard of living and their readiness to learn and develop, to provide safe and strong communities, affordable housing, a sustainable and responsive health care system, and jobs and income supports for their parents, too many children live in low income circumstances.
This spring, federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for social services have released or will release three key documents with respect to the national child benefit. In April it was progress report 2003. In the coming days we will be releasing the summary report of the first evaluation of the national child benefit. In June we will release the latest NCB impact analysis. Together, these documents will provide a good indication of the progress we are making in addressing child poverty.
A recent UNICEF report, entitled “Child Poverty in Rich Countries”, pointed out that many European nations began their increased individual attention on poverty generally by building a consensus among citizens, communities, the business and voluntary sectors and politicians to determine just what poverty is and how it should be measured. Only then, they realized, could they set up understandable and accepted targets, and only with targets could they generate the necessary focus and will that might generate the right results.
In Canada we have a host of measures for low income that are used too selectively and often opportunistically by governments, advocacy groups and academics, depending on the message each wants to deliver. Collectively, these measures make relative success or failure less clear. They make accountability easier to avoid.
Social Development Canada is at the forefront of Canadian social policy. I want to generate a discussion with governments, communities, the business and voluntary sectors and with the public in general about poverty, about how it is best understood and measured, about what priorities we should have and about what targets we should set. I look forward to initiating this discussion in the near future.
