Mr. Speaker, I too commend the hon. member for Burin—St. George's on his speech. I know he is not a cousin of the Reform Party. I come from the island of Cape Breton and he comes from the island of Newfoundland. I suppose we could refer to ourselves almost as cousins. I should also indicate that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Churchill.
I say to the last speaker that those of us on the east coast, in Newfoundland, in Cape Breton, in New Brunswick and on Prince Edward Island understand perhaps too clearly the growing disparities in the country. That is part of the reason we brought forward the motion we have today. I am proud to speak to the motion on behalf of my party.
The upcoming budget presents an opportunity for the government to address the very real economic challenge of how to stop the disparity, the growing inequality between the super rich whose incomes have increased and other Canadians.
I am not only saying the poor, although we know the poorest of the poor continue their decline in income and in services. Today we are seeing that even the middle class is shrinking. We are seeing the middle class, young families and young single people working at part time jobs and trying to make ends meet. We see young people who are at a point in their lives when they should be leaving home, getting apartments and setting up their own independence, and they cannot afford to do it. They are staying at home with their parents who are seeing their own incomes shrink and their costs increase.
What is happening is clearly the rich is getting richer and the vast majority of Canadians is getting poorer. I am pleased to speak to this motion which states:
That this House condemns the government for promoting an economy where the gap between the super rich and ordinary Canadian families is widening, risking the future of our youth, strongly urges the government to introduce in the coming budget measures ensuring every Canadian an opportunity to share in a new prosperity.
The premier of Nova Scotia who called an election yesterday sometimes refers to members of our party as the doom and gloom people in his election rhetoric. We are talking about the new prosperity in the country.
We live in a prosperous country. We live in a country that is the envy in many ways of the world. That is why it is so inexcusable to have this growing gap between the rich and the poor. If the country were not as wealthy as it is, we could perhaps say our hands are tied and there is not much we can do. However, we live in a country with tremendous resources.
The Canada I grew up in was one that guaranteed quality universal health care. It was one that guaranteed quality affordable education to everyone. Had it not been for that, I am not sure many of us could be in the House today. Many of us are the products of those very good social programs.
It provided every citizen with an opportunity to earn a decent living, which is what Canadians want. Most Canadians are happy to have a good job and a good paycheque. They are not seeking to be millionaires. They are seeking to provide for their families, to be able to send their children to university, and to ensure that what we give to the next generation is at least as good as what was given to us.
My parents' generation grew up in a country where they could make a good and decent living. Each generation gave to the next hope and prosperity. That prosperity and that hope are no longer shared by all Canadians.
The hon. member for Qu'Appelle mentioned some statistics. I will briefly refer to them because they are compelling statistics in this country of plenty. Today in Canada over half a million children live in poverty. The number of food banks in Canada has tripled and the proportion of the population relying on them has doubled.
I remember the first food bank in my community. It was a small little church hall called Loaves & Fishes. It was supposed to be a temporary measure to get us through a recession of a couple of years. It began as churches were concerned about what they saw then, the growing number of poor. They were ahead of their time. The growing number of poor has increased to the point now where in this country of plenty food banks are institutionalized.
The hon. member indicated that our caucus met with representatives of the food banks. It is shocking to me that we now need a national organization representing people who run food banks. It is reminiscent of the dirty thirties.
In Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where I come from, unemployment continues to be double the national average. This widening gap between the rich and the poor not only separates the population into classes. It is beginning to divide the country along regional lines. I indicated that those of us in Newfoundland and the east do not share in the prosperity of this new Canada which the government proclaims. In my community that has meant a decrease in the population of young people. In the last five years over 2,700 young people have left my community and will not come back.
What does that mean for the growing gap between the rich and the poor? It means that we have an older population and we do not have that youth and vitality creating new business, entering the workforce, purchasing, and creating jobs. This is because of policies of the government that encourage a migrant workforce. Young people would hop the train in Cape Breton if we still had it, but we do not any more. They rely on their thumb to get to somewhere else in the country where they might get a minimum wage job.
The Reform Party talks about Alberta and how it has done some wonderful things following a policy of lower taxes and supporting the very wealthy. Many of the young people who leave my island end up in Calgary in a minimum wage job without a bed to sleep in, if it were not for shelters, because they cannot afford the housing costs.
There are answers. One of them would be to change the GST the government adopted. The premier of Nova Scotia came to the government in November, although he supported the GST when he was on the Liberal benches. He asked the Minister of Finance to take it off heating oil and electricity. He failed in his request. That is one measure where we could have some progressive taxation policies by the government.
In terms of education, the comments from the member for Burin—St. George's echo the fact that more and more Atlantic Canadian students are simply not going to university. When the government says that education is a great leveller it is not happening for many students in the country.
For the young people of this nation, I ask for support of our motion.