Finance committee  I would agree that for the year that the money was allocated for it, that's a helpful sum of money. The need, then, on an ongoing basis is to build the stock of affordable housing. So it would be really welcome if that kind of funding were continued on in the next budget. It woul

Finance committee  That one I'll have to get back to you on. We had done a little bit of research on that a few years ago, and I don't have the numbers right on the tip of my head. I'd have to update that a little bit.

Finance committee  That's a very good point, and a real dilemma. One of the benefits of the conditions that existed for the Canada social transfer in the past was, again, to help build that system, but it does involve mutual accountability across both levels of government. When we look at somethi

Finance committee  That's a very good question. I think, as you pointed out, part of the justification for splitting the two is for accountability purposes: to know how much money is going for post-secondary, how much is going through the Canada social transfer. One of the advantages of the dolla

Finance committee  Some of the recommendations, in fact the largest one--to lay out a poverty reduction strategy--won't cost very much, but it will set the agenda for future budget decisions. Some of the specific items have been known for quite some time. For example, with respect to the needs arou

Finance committee  Citizens for Public Justice hasn't, but there have been a number of studies done around the impact of minimum wage projections. I can send those to you, if you like.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I think something like a working income tax benefit will have its place in a strategy to try to address low wages and low skills, but it's only part of the component. Really, poverty reduction needs to be seen as an integrated part of economic develop

Finance committee  This is where I wanted to go. In a recent issue of the International Productivity Monitor there were two articles, one by Pierre Fortin, a Quebec economist, and one by Andrew Jackson, from the Canadian Labour Congress, that make this point: that part of the strategy Canada needs

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I'm glad to be here representing Citizens for Public Justice. We're a national organization primarily of Christians concerned about promoting public justice in Canadian public life. In my presentation I'll briefly summarize the