Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech quite carefully and can hear that the member is genuinely concerned about child poverty.
In all sincerity I would like to ask her if she could please give me her definition of poverty. This is something I have been asking today of each of the members because I know what my constituents define as poverty. I am really very interested when we throw this word around to actually have a definition of what that means.
The member mentioned that 700,000 jobs were created by this government. Not true. The private sector creates jobs for the most part and, for some strange reason, there has been no net increase in the number of jobs. We are still stuck at the same unemployment level. Perhaps the hon. member can explain to me, if the government has created jobs, why we still have the same unemployment.
Since she has expressed an interest in the government helping young people get into jobs, can she tell me whether she supports the self-employment assistance program carried out by EI, which specifically excludes white men under 45 years of age from being able to use their EI benefits to start a small business.
The program only applies to women, men 45 years and older, visible minorities, aboriginals or people with disabilities. It specifically excludes one of the highest unemployment areas in the whole country, young white males.
I would like the hon. member to tell me, since that is funded by this budget which she is in support of, whether she supports that discrimination.