Finance committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to make the case for the next federal budget to be a budget to make poverty history. The Canadian Make Poverty History campaign has the support of over a quarter of a million Canadians and of over 800 organizations that have signed on to o

Finance committee  The millennium development goals and the goal of ending child poverty are achievable goals, but these worthy goals will not be realized unless our government stands up and delivers on measures that would help to make poverty history in the next federal budget. Thank you.

Finance committee  I didn't go into the details, but basically we would support the recommendations made by the parliamentary committee two years ago that lay out the ways in which that program could be improved. On the question of federal jurisdiction and the child tax benefit, I should note tha

Finance committee  I want to recall that in one of the earlier consultations with the finance minister, the representative of the Canadian Bankers Association was calling for an investment in child care. The reason was that a number of the leading corporations are very concerned about the looming l

Finance committee  It makes poverty reduction--

Finance committee  Okay.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity to share in the important work you're doing at this committee. I want to start by saying how much we appreciate that this committee has taken up this study. We wish you all the best. There are more than one billion people who live on les

Human Resources committee  I'm concerned that there is a real shortage of available affordable housing, so just subsidizing it may not be good enough.

Human Resources committee  In terms of the measures that could be taken right away, I would say that in addition to employment insurance, which is the top priority, and raising the child tax benefit--and again, the system is already in place, so it really doesn't take much to raise it, and it would deliver

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  That amount would mostly eliminate child poverty. There have been annual increases over the years, but now they have stopped. It's time now for the government to decide to continue to increase the child tax benefit to get it to a level where it could reduce child poverty to almos

Human Resources committee  Definitely.

Human Resources committee  The Make Poverty History campaign has over 250,000 people who have signed up in support of our campaign. We have an online network. I'm sure you've received emails from Make Poverty History supporters, because we have supporters in every riding across the country. I think even

Human Resources committee  The problem is that the child tax credit part of it is not available to the poorest families. The child tax benefit has been a good program, but I wish the additional money that was put into the child programs had been put into the existing child tax benefit, because then it woul

Human Resources committee  Yes, but again—