Mr. Speaker, the endangered species legislation is currently being studied by Parliament but there is one endangered species that is being ignored, the Canadian middle class.
First, more and more Canadian families are slipping into poverty and more families cannot escape poverty.
Second, wages have stagnated or declined in Canada over the last two decades at the same time as taxes have been consistently raised. Wealth and income in Canada has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people and the gap between rich and poor is at 19th century levels. In other words, the middle class has all but disappeared.
I urge the government to include the Canadian middle class as an endangered species in the legislation currently before Parliament. Maybe if we can do that we can save the middle class from going the way of the dodo bird.