Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy Minister, ladies, good morning.
Please don't think that what I'm about to say is a personal attack on you, but your statement on the sales tax leaves me very skeptical as well. I have difficulty understanding why someone who purchases a Mercedes would benefit less from the sales tax cut than someone purchasing a bicycle. I find this very hard to understand.
The United Nations' inspector came to Canada, recently, to assess the situation of the homeless. Here too, I have difficulty understanding when you talk about social housing, Ms. Levonian. In Alberta, a very rich province, thousands of people currently live in tents, particularly in Edmonton. We saw this. No one is talking about it. It is a terrible situation. One million children are going hungry in Canada. Yet, we are not investing in social programs.
During the 1950s, in the Scandinavian countries, the situation was as difficult, Mr. Wright. You alluded to this a little earlier as well as to a period of uncertainty. Yet, those countries decided to invest in social programs instead of investing in healthy companies such as the oil and gas companies. Those countries thought that investing in people was more profitable in the long run than investing in something that was already working. Today, they are much more successful than we are. The people there are much more productive and happier. Those countries are wealthier, while we are becoming increasingly poor.
I don't understand how the government operates. I haven't been in the government, in Parliament, for very long, I have only been here for four years. However, since my arrival, I have been asking questions about the government's real role. When there is an agenda, no matter who the champions in the different departments are, no progress whatsoever can be made. They have no influence on decisions. You say so yourselves. Although you provide informed advice to the different ministers in the development of their budgets, your influence is unfortunately quite small.
For example, the tax-free savings account does absolutely nothing for those who have no money and is very profitable for people who are already rich who will put money into a savings account without having to pay taxes. We won't have access to that money for social programs.
Enlighten me, please. I am confused. I don't understand this at all. Hog producers have just been given another $50 million. I'm happy for the hog producers, but that makes a total of $100 million. They are getting $225 a head, which is four times the market price. At the very least, those hogs, that are going to the slaughterhouse, could have been given to children who are starving. But no, those hogs will be slaughtered and will feed other hogs. I fail to understand this. Enlighten me, please.
Pardon me, I get angry when I see things like this. I get very upset to see that children are being left to live in poverty, left to suffer, and entire families are being left on the streets. It's not just indigents or alcoholics in the streets; entire families with children also live in the streets. These people are working but they don't earn enough to pay rent.