Madam Speaker, I have listened to the hon. member's remarks with great interest. She has certainly made some valid comments on the structure of the family and the rather sorry state it is in.
I would like focus my comments on my riding of Mount Royal, where young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the Black community are facing a 60 per cent rate of unemployment. I must tell you that our party, this side of the House, this government wants to listen to everyone, whether they are from the City of Mount Royal, the riding of Mount Royal, downtown Quebec City, the Lower St. Lawrence, Newfoundland or British Columbia. We are concerned with improving the well-being of families, young people, middle-aged people, that is to say people 45 and over, wherever they are in Canada. We are not concerned only with Quebec, but with Canada as a whole.
You claimed, first, that we did not have a single idea. That is not true and you know it. You also said that we had done nothing so far and created no jobs. That is also untrue. We are setting up an entire infrastructure policy that the hon. member is well aware off.
There were good points in the hon. member's speech, but they were set in a biased context that I find harmful to the people of Canada, including Quebec, because what matters is not whether you live in Quebec or in Canada, but that poverty should not exist in this country.
If the hon. member has such good ideas and is so much on top of all to provincial responsibilities, I hope, Madam Speaker, that she will participate very actively and whole-heartedly in the projects we will be putting forward to ensure that all Canadians, young and old, are better off.
I detect a certain narrow-mindedness when the hon. member says that we did not come up with a single idea when-and she knows full well-with regard to the Unemployment Insurance Program, we have a piece of legislation regarding the increase in the level of benefits. She failed to mention that we found money elsewhere in order not to increase Unemployment Insurance rates.
I hope that the hon. member will contribute more positively, although she did note genuine facts in most of her remarks.