Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a few words about poverty as well, like my colleague.
We have the case of the man who has a family, who wants to work and has no job. There is the young 24-year old who just got a degree, has incredible qualifications, sends his resume everywhere, and people do not even bother to answer. I could go on for ages, trying to define poverty. Yet, we realize that we are among the seven richest countries in the world. However, in this country we call Canada, there are still places where poverty really exists. I agree with my colleague who gave a very good description of the problem.
How can we make up for this? Poverty exists, we all agree on that. We agree on other points as well, that there is a deficit and we have to deal with it, so as not to mortgage the lives of future generations. My children's generation, and my children are in their twenties, is already in debt. There are other children in my riding who are even worse off than my kids.
Yesterday, I was talking to a woman of 35 who told me she was still paying for her education. That is poverty, too. How can you start a family if you are still paying back a student loan after ten years? When we know that as far as jobs go, the future is uncertain, how can we create hope? If we have no hope in our lives, I think we are only half the man or the woman we could be.
We agree that poverty exists and that we have a deficit to pay off. But it is not up to our children to pay off the deficit, because we created that deficit. Starting in 1970, under Minister Lalonde and other finance ministers, it was paradise on earth: "Anything goes, borrow now and pay later". I fail to understand how brilliant men and women in this Parliament managed to put us into debt to this extent.
Well, it is no use crying over spilt milk. We have to find a way out. And there are a number of ways, as I see it. Some economists also agree. However, and I want to repeat this at every opportunity, why can the government not take specific steps to get as much money as possible without weakening the neediest among us, without creating a psychological threshold which means that in some regions, people do not know what to do any more?
Ask people who have are unemployed, who have lost their jobs and are living on welfare. It is hard on their dignity. It is very hard on children too. In my opinion, we have to turn things around and go where the money is.
I said it earlier and I say it again, I could say it a hundred times, no one is listening, but I could say that I had repeated it: how is it that there are rich people that always manage to be on the right side of the fence, without paying or hardly paying any income tax, when the poor people who have the misfortune to outsmart some of the rules of employment insurance, which I call misery insurance, automatically get nailed?
This year I have run into several cases of people who are honest but perhaps naive and who at some point were without work. They were employed; legally this was not right. Morally, however, they had to feed their family. They were told: "You are going to do so many hours". The calculations were not done right. One of these people owes the unemployment insurance system $40,000, because this situation went on for four years. Some agreements were reached for him to repay, but he has no work. He is suffering from depression.
I realize the officials are doing their job. I accept that. What is not legal is not legal. But, how is it, when I look on the other side of the fence, that I see respect being given to the multinationals whatever they do? Nobody bothers them.
I repeat: so long as this government and this party do not set rules for themselves for the election fund, who will govern? They lack the courage to do what René Lévesque did in Quebec, and he was quite proud of himself for it. Just before his death, he indicated he was proud of Hydro-Québec, yes, but more importantly, of having settled the issue of fundraising, for his party and others. You may know that, in Quebec, corporations are not allowed to contribute millions of dollars to campaign funds. They are not the ones making $100,000 contributions to political parties, only individuals can do that. As long as they will not have the courage to do the same thing, we will keep asking the same questions and getting the same answers.
I listened to several speakers who are very sensitive to the plight of the most disadvantaged and really want to do something about it. I sit on a committee on which there is much talk about the rural and regional community, and the committee members are quite serious. The problem is with the measures being considered. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If financial considerations cannot be set aside so that the government can have its hands free, very free and very clean hands, we will get nowhere. The alternative is to go a long way.
It may have been unreasonable of him to say so, but we did hear the Minister of Finance utter the words, and I quote: "We can see that the worst is behind us, that brighter days lie ahead". I wish the worst were really behind us.
I for one fail to see how the situation has improved, in the regions in particular, these past three years. In my region, where unemployment is on the rise, jobs are hard to find and the minister just steals bread from the mouths of workers, I cannot see how one could say that the worst is behind us.
I remind the Minister of Finance that there are 1.5 million people looking for work in this country, and 400,000 young people waiting to get on the Canadian labour market. In a rich country like Canada, why can the right climate not be created, where everyone would have a job? While the unemployment rate is 5.5 per cent in the United States, it is soaring at 10 per cent here. Something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong.
This government's real strategy is to starve regions like mine, to starve the fishers in the Gaspé, as well as farmers, and to force forest workers onto welfare. What is this government doing for small business? What is it giving small business, farm producers and forest workers? Crumbs. There was the infrastructure program. Great. It was a tiny step in the right direction. But only temporary jobs were created. What the people of my riding and other ridings in Quebec are asking for are good permanent jobs, but the government is not listening.