Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the members of the House for consenting to a further few minutes to conclude this debate.
I only regret that we could not have a longer debate beyond the designated time. I feel if we could have had some more debate in this House, we would have had an interesting dialogue and exchange of ideas about this motion that is before us today.
I listened very carefully to the members from the other parties in the House in terms of their response to this motion. I would like to say that while I hear the Liberal members say that they are sensitive to the plight of poor Canadians, I really believe that the programs that have been put forward by the Liberal government are very superficial and do not even begin to address the damage that has been done since 1993.
The hon. member from the Liberal Party spoke about the child tax benefit as being a positive sign that things are improving. However the reality is that if this is an anti-poverty measure, why does it not apply to people who are on social assistance? Why will the child tax benefit not be fully indexed? If it was an anti-poverty measure, it would be.
In my riding we had a round table on youth unemployment. One of the concerns was brought forward by young people themselves. Because many of the government programs are not sustained and because they do not have a continuity in terms of training and moving people into good paying jobs, young people become very frustrated. They get into a program, it ends and before they know it they are back on the street or they are back in the unemployed lines.
The issue before us today is to set timetables, to set targets for a full employment strategy. I believe this can be accomplished if the government is seriously committed to it by a program of fair taxation, by a national housing program, by encouraging the provinces to adopt a minimum wage that is liveable, by ensuring that welfare rates are above the poverty line, and by reducing student debt.
We have not talked about the issues raised by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, where we see the greatest poverty in this country.
I believe that these are things that can be done by the House.