I will come to the farm issue in a second, but in terms of natural disasters, some very serious expenditures were required. That is what our country is all about, so I think this is an important qualification to place.
The other qualification is the involvement of Canada in a military conflict, consequent to its international peacekeeping commitments or when some other crisis arises. When it comes to defending peace and security and our democratic traditions, of course, money ought to play no determining factor. In terms of our peacekeeping commitments, I do not expect that there is a single Canadian who would not say that this would be a legitimate expenditure in order to promote and keep global harmony and peace.
My concern lies with clause 6(b), “a major deterioration in economic conditions”, such as the farm crisis in Saskatchewan. My friend from Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre earlier today, commenting to a very important committee, outlined a whole set of concerns as to why this is in fact an economic crisis, not only for the province of Saskatchewan, but for the prairie region and the country generally.
As a matter of fact, my colleague from Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre has spoken at least eight times formally and has held 50 or 60 meetings to discuss the issue of the crisis in the farming community.
The collapse of incomes is placing farmers at the same depths or even below the depths of the deep recession and depression of the 1930s. This is indeed a crisis.
I also want to say that I am worried about the wording. We would all agree that this is an economic crisis in the farming community. We can also make the case for the fisheries on both the east and west coasts. Many communities have been completely devastated and will require assistance. I could go on to talk about other sectors as well. In some of the major resource communities of western Canada we have seen a collapse because of the Asian markets. Over-exploitation of some resources has resulted in economic calamity in some communities.
We are also talking about social calamity. For example, with the collapse of the prairie farm industry would come a whole social web of issues that would also be in crisis. I think there would be a major deterioration in economic and social conditions.
We could make the case, as others have, of the crisis in our health care system. I do not think we could find today a single Canadian citizen who would not agree that there is a financial crisis in our health care system. I would be surprised if we could find a single person who would say “No, our health care system is fine”.
In our pre-budget consultations, whether they were in a small community or in a large community, whether they were on the east coast, the west coast, the north coast or wherever, the message was always the same: health care funding ought to be a priority.
Education and training should be a priority. The sewing together of our ripped social safety net should be a priority now that we have a surplus in excess of $10 billion.
When we talk about economic and social issues that confront the country that have to be dealt with, may I suggest that there is no bigger issue than the calamity regarding poverty, especially child poverty, in our country.
I was moved, as I know many others were, when I listened to the the Conference of Catholic Bishops which said “A government that refuses to address the issue of child poverty is participating in a form of child abuse”. I think we all agree with that. It is a form of child abuse when we sit back and allow 1.5 million children day after day to live and grow in a life of poverty in what has to be the richest country in the world. It is the ultimate in neglect.
I was chagrined last Friday when I heard reports that our Minister of Finance said that poverty in our country is a national disgrace. I suspect that if we traced the roots to many of our problems in terms of creating poverty they would go right back to the seat of the Minister of Finance. After all, his programs resulted in the massive slashing to support programs for poor families across the country.
I am getting kind of worked up over this. We put a high priority on debt repayment to foreign bankers. We do not put much priority on the pay equity issue, particularly in terms of the women who are affected. We go on year after year ignoring child poverty.
I was here in 1989 when we passed a motion in this House, moved by Mr. Broadbent of the New Democratic Party and seconded by myself, to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000. We are almost there, but the situation has simply deteriorated year after year after year.
It is a national disgrace. It is an immoral act that we continue to simply ignore this blight in our country. It is a serious issue.
I am all in favour of balanced budgets. I am in favour of having as a goal a balanced budget, particularly over the life of a parliament. But when we have these glaring problems of the crisis in the farming community, when we have obscene levels of poverty, particularly with children in our country, when we have collapsing economies in the east coast and west coast fisheries, when we have a crisis in our health care system, when there is not a person in this country who would not say we need to invest in human resources through education and training, to say that we have to have a balanced budget as a matter of law I think is pushing the envelope.
I say to my friend in the Bloc, for whom I have a great deal of respect, the principle of this bill we support, but until we get our Canadian house in order, until we can say to Canadians that we have done what is necessary, particularly in terms of providing for those who need this help today, I think we can say that we will address the issue of balancing the budget on an annual basis at some time hopefully in the near future.