Finance committee  No, there's nothing at all.

Finance committee  I will get back to you with some firm specifics on that. I will just briefly say that the chief actuarial officer, as you may be aware, has already spoken on this issue to say that there is no crisis in the old age security, that it's adequately supported, and that it is sustaina

Finance committee  A brief retort on that is that Canadians are working harder than ever before—we have evidence of that—and the ranks of the working poor are growing. You will find them in homeless shelters, and so forth. We have structural problems in our labour market, which also deserves far gr

Finance committee  I'll mention two points, one of which is income related, and it's actually a recommendation that has been put forward to Parliament by the special Senate committee that looked at the whole issue of poverty and the federal role. There was a recommendation for a green paper study

Finance committee  That's correct. Senator Eggleton's and Senator Segal's report had a recommendation for an in-depth feasibility study of essentially expanding the system of basic income or guaranteed income in Canada. The second point is that the research is pretty solid in terms of investing in

Finance committee  Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Finance, on behalf of our team at Canada Without Poverty, our directors, honorary directors, staff, volunteers, and supporters, and on behalf of those to whom Canada Without Poverty amplifies their voice on matters of their very

Finance committee  Right. Poverty is linked to a range of negative outcomes. It's been shown that right from birth poor nutrition can affect brain development, capacity for learning, and so forth. So it's right from that very starting point. And then as children move through their young years, if

Finance committee  The data does show that for most people who experience poverty, it tends to be a portion of their lives, not for their entire lives, although certainly there are those who sadly spend their entire lives from cradle to grave never escaping the conditions. So I think what that real

Finance committee  As I said before, I think we pat ourselves on the back too much. Yes, there are some things we do well. Yes, seniors' poverty has come down, but child poverty rates are pretty much the same as they were in 1989 when the House of Commons, the MPs at that time, said they were going

Finance committee  For sure. I'd just like to emphasize that the evidence shows that nations that are prepared to invest significantly in social development and social security, social protection, have stronger health outcomes, equity outcomes, community, democratic outcomes, and competition and pr

Finance committee  It's clearly insufficient, and I think it also points to half measures. We have a history over forty years of half measures on this, so our poverty rates have barely budged. In fact we're been around for forty years as an organization, and tonight we have an event at which we'll

Finance committee  Certainly anything we can do to increase the incomes of low-income families I think is a good thing. The broader point, though, is that very micro-targeted measures on discrete populations in the absence of a comprehensive approach is likely to yield, at best, very minor benefi

Finance committee  Sure. I'll take the last question first. The two reports you're referring to are, first, the 2009 Senate Subcommittee on Cities report, a subcommittee chaired by Senator Eggleton and Senator Segal. They spent several years looking at the problem of poverty and the role of the fe

Finance committee  Just very briefly, we know that the costs of poverty are so high because of the kinds of downstream effects we end up having to deal with. We've heard something about the health care system. Yesterday I learned from Dr. Jeff Turnbull, the immediate past president of the Canadian

Finance committee  Thanks, Harriett. Thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for giving us this opportunity to appear. The June throne speech highlighted the government's desire to advance a caring society. What we all want is not only a caring society but a society that is healthy and as prospe