Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to address the House on the importance of youth week, a celebration to which we should give the highest priority as Canadians.
We must invest in our young people if our society is to prosper. The best investment we can make as a government and as a society is in learning.
The Government of Canada believes that we must not only build a country on opportunity, jobs and growth but we must make sure we are building a society where every Canadian has equal access to those opportunities.
That is why the government introduced the youth opportunity employment strategy which helps Canada's young people make the transition from school to work, to getting that first job.
The important question of access was also behind the Prime Minister's announcement last fall of the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation.
Through these measures, we are ensuring that Canada's young people have the opportunities to benefit from the great opportunity facing Canada—