Human Resources committee  As a first step, I would encourage you to come to consensus on the fact that we need a poverty reduction strategy. That's the first step, in those places that have introduced them. The next step is you decide on your indicators. That's what the European Union has done with their anti-poverty and social exclusion strategies.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. The National Council of Welfare feels that it's important that Canada, the federal government, establish a national anti-poverty strategy, like the Province of Quebec has done, like the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has done. We've indicated some measures that, from our research, we think need to be part of that, and you've named those.

Human Resources committee  The research that the National Council of Welfare has put together on welfare rates and their inadequacy across the country is pretty clear. Frankly, no matter what poverty measures we want to use, as Mr. Stapleton pointed out, welfare rates don't add up under any of them. I want to come back to underscore the fact that if we want to have accountability, if we want to be able to track progress, we have to take a strategic approach.

Human Resources committee  Simply, to answer, it's pretty straightforward. The National Council of Welfare has consistently used the low-income cut-off measures as the measure for poverty in its studies.

Human Resources committee  Those terms, “relative” and “absolute”--and Professor Sarlo too has pointed this out--are not very good descriptors of the different choices among poverty lines. There are consumption basket measures, and there are income basket measures. I think Statistics Canada refers to the low-income cut-offs as the point below which people are in straitened circumstances or...I forget the other descriptors that they use for low-income cut-offs.

Human Resources committee  The one thing I would observe or add is that it's not entirely true to say we've not made any success in reducing poverty. When you look at seniors, the rate and depth of poverty since 1980 has come down, and come down dramatically. It reflects, in part, public programs that have been put in place specifically to address poverty among seniors.

Human Resources committee  That is the issue of seniors who are eligible for the guaranteed income supplement but aren't accessing it. It is something that has been a concern for the National Council of Welfare, and we have advised previous ministers about that issue. If that continues to be a problem, we will make sure to raise the issue again to ensure that the government tries to put in place strategies that will effectively enable people to access the guaranteed income supplement that they're eligible for.

Human Resources committee  It's an adequate amount of money to be able to have a child in high-quality early-learning child care, or to create and build up a system of high-quality early-learning child care that every child can participate in. It's quite simply not adequate.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the comments and the question. From my perspective, the situation you've laid out underscores the reason why we need to take an integrated and strategic approach to reducing poverty. It doesn't just reside within the household and with the parents and the children.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, members of the committee. The National Council of Welfare is pleased to have the opportunity to appear before this committee on an issue that's central to the council's mandate. I hope the committee will also refer to our written brief. For over 25 years the council has published detailed statistics on poverty in Canada, with its most recent reports released in July and August this year.