Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I've enjoyed every moment.

Human Resources committee  EDI scores are collected, and I'll get you information on EDI scores. I know that in the city of London we've actually mapped them, so you can easily see the overlay between EDI and socio-economic status. It is as clear a correlation as there is.

Human Resources committee  Here's what I hope the social policy institute will be. Washington State has a similar policy institute that policy-makers can actually turn to if their goal is, for example, to increase EDI scores in low-income neighbourhoods and they want to know what the research says is the best way to achieve that goal.

Human Resources committee  They can look at existing research. They can identify gaps in research. We need to build the body of research that tells us where best to spend our money. We--

Human Resources committee  We need the evaluation. We need good evaluation that tells us where best to spend our money. Too often, with respect to all of us in elected life, policy decisions are based not on the evidence but on other factors. So we need to look to the evidence, because these kids are too important.

Human Resources committee  We also need to tap into all the research that's happening at our universities. I think there is a gap, a disconnect, between academic research and public policy. So we need to bring that together. In a perfect world, I would see big research projects, with many partners and graduate students working on a big project, rather than a number of isolated--

Human Resources committee  We sure have. And if you look at chapter 5, actually, on page 36--

Human Resources committee  --you'll see we have eight indicators. I can tell you that the McGuinty government is all about measuring our progress. We believe that by measuring, we actually move. So whether it's wait times or class size, or whatever our initiative is, these are the eight indicators that we landed on: readiness to learn; progress in school; graduation rates; healthy birth weights--because people in the world of health say healthy birth weight captures a lot; income measures; 50% of the median income; 40% of the median income.

Human Resources committee  These are the eight indicators that we're starting with. But we know that as we go forward this may change. We were quite taken by the New Zealand wheel. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at that, but there are a number of indicators that can tell you how you're doing on a number of different factors, all of which are important.

Human Resources committee  The Toronto District School Board—

Human Resources committee  On the WITB, yes. Just weeks after we released the strategy asking for that initiative, there it was in the budget. That was good. That was good success. I want to be clear about the difference between increases to the national child benefit and the CCTB. The increases to the CCTB have a very moderate impact on poverty reduction because they actually increase the income of those who are already out of poverty.

Human Resources committee  I sure can. When I was parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Community and Social Services, I actually did a report that focused exactly on that: barriers to employment for people on social assistance. I wrote a report, and we have moved on almost all of those initiatives.

Human Resources committee  No. The Toronto District School Board was actually.... I think it was grade three or grade six EQAO scores--grade three EQAO scores. They did it by income and also by race.

Human Resources committee  I might not answer with a yes or a no. We'll see.

Human Resources committee  Exactly. We're not in denial about that. We know that these are very difficult economic times. Families are being severely impacted. That's why it's more important than ever that we're there to support families.