Mr. Speaker, since I started to speak, I thought there might have been another motion. I thought we were going to debate poverty, offer solutions, and see the government perhaps react to some of the suggestions we made to it during the debate.
I note that the hon. member across the floor has named several government programs, and that is exactly what we deplore, the fact that there have been $42 billion in cuts to provincial transfer payments for social assistance, health and education. At the same time, that same government is going to interfere in those same areas, which are provincial areas of jurisdiction.
We ask the hon. member if it would not be desirable for the provinces to be given back the amounts taken from them in the shameful cuts that have been made at the expense of the most disadvantaged members of the population, and of the population as a whole.