Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak briefly to the issue of child poverty.
Recently the Liberals have awakened to the human consequence of their misguided social and fiscal policies of the last quarter century: hungry children, fractured homes and hopeless youth.
A federal debt of over $600 billion is not just a number. It is $26 billion in increased annual tax grabs since the last election. It is an average family with $3,000 less than in 1993 to meet their needs. It is skyrocketing divorce, unchecked poverty, teen suicides and violence. It is the working poor working poorer.
More money and more Liberal programs with more bureaucracy will only perpetuate the failure.
Reform policies will leave hard earned money where it belongs, in the hands of families. Reform policies will remove over one million Canadians from the tax rolls altogether. Reform policies will allow parents to direct their attention to their children instead of the tax man.