Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her intervention and I look forward to answering her question.
There are too many people living in poverty today, far too many people with the proper skills in Canada to make us competitive, far too many young people facing the problems and challenges associated with transition from school to work, the 1.2 million children who live in poverty in Canada.
This is precisely the reason why we as a government have taken on the challenge to modernize and restructure Canada's social security system, a challenge that past governments have run away from.
On January 31 of this year the Minister of Human Resources Development introduced a three stage process to the House that would result in new a new social security system for Canada which would address the labour market strategy challenges that we face and would address the concerns cited by the hon. member.
We are taking interim measures to address the issue of unemployment. That is why as a result of the SEED program this summer 60,000 young people will be employed. That is why we are reducing the UI premiums, so that small business can generate more jobs, so that we can generate more jobs.
We were elected on a mandate to create jobs. We are well on our way to doing that. Not only that, we are taking on the very important challenge to modernize and restructure Canada's social security system so that fewer Canadians are faced with the challenges and the plight of living in poverty.
We have only been in government for approximately six months. Our record to date on the measures we have taken so far show that this government truly cares about the lives of Canadians.