Good morning. Rather than reducing CMHC's budget for social housing, the Parliament of Canada should instead be rallying behind Bill C-285, the private member's bill tabled by Bloc Member of Parliament Christiane Gagnon, which is currently at the second reading stage in the House of Commons.
As a matter of general policy, the bill proposes that any profits realized by CMHC as a result of its economic activities be used to provide adequate funding for its social activities.
It is important to remember that in 2005, CMHC's net after-tax profit was $1 billion and that it now has an accumulated surplus of $4.4 billion.
Is it too much to ask that part of that money be used to provide housing to individuals and families who are not certain to have a roof over their head and are forced to spend up to 60%, 70% or 80% of their income on inadequate housing?
In a different connection, FRAPRU is also against the $17.7 million budget cut, including $5 million in Quebec, to funding for literacy.
According to the Regroupement des groupes populaires en alphabétisation du Québec, these cuts represent almost half of the annual budget of the Regroupement and the entire budget of grassroots-based literacy organizations working in this area as part of federal-provincial joint literacy initiatives.
These cuts come at a time when efforts in this critical area are yielding results. But there is still so much more to be done: there are still 800,000 adults in Quebec aged from 16 to 65 with low literacy skills, compared to 1 million ten years ago.
When it signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 30 years ago, Canada made a commitment to the international community to ensure over time that the rights set out in that covenant could be fully exercised. In that respect, we are taking a step backwards at a time when the federal government is swimming in budget surpluses. This is not only unacceptable, it is absolutely indecent.
In closing, I would just like to mention that we do, of course, share the views expressed by others with respect to cuts to the Summer Career Placement program. Again, given the considerable surpluses now available to the government, it is completely indecent in our opinion to be cutting the funding of such an important program as this.
Thank you.