Madam Speaker, it is a delight to stand up in the House of Commons, Canada's Parliament, and speak on behalf of families.
I would like to draw to the attention of the House and any Canadians who happen to be listening that the Reform Party believes very strongly in protecting families and in protecting children.
There is a motion on the floor today to address the issue of family and child poverty. We of course are adamant in saying that children are probably universally poor. I know children of parents who are very well off but the children themselves do not have money. These children are poor because they are dependent on their parents. I think it would be certainly true that every child in Canada who is poor is poor because they are members of a poor family.
There are a number of reasons for this poverty and there are a number of different ways in which that poverty is measured.
I was reading the other day that different countries use different measures of poverty. In some countries a family is considered poor if it simply cannot afford 100% of the costs of basic food, clothing and shelter. In other words, everyone in the country should be entitled to those basic necessities. On the other hand in Canada we use varying definitions.
One that is often used is that families are poor if their family income is less than half of the median income, and so this provides a movable measure of poverty. Sometimes this is valid. Indeed we all know of families that are poor. We all know of children who are poor. We have encountered them. We have encountered families that have a great deal of difficulty and sometimes find it impossible for a number of different reasons to meet the basic necessities of their needs.
Yet we have also of course this flexible measurement because of the percentage it is based on so that in some cases one could really say that there are many people who are living on a very small amount of income but they do so very efficiently. By the measure of our normal standards of poverty they may classify as being in a poor home but as a matter of fact they are able to meet all their needs. They are comfortable, they are warm, they are fed and, most important, they are loved. Those children would not be classified as poor in the usual sense but they might by the statistical definition that they live in a family where the family income is less than half of the median income in the country.
I do not know whether I should be so bold as to say that I grew in what by today's standards would be called a poor family. We were talking about it the other day. We were talking about the great hardship that many families encountered because suddenly they had no electricity. I was telling a friend of mine that as best as I recall I was around 10 when we first got electricity. Of course the big difference between now and then was that at that time we did not have it, so therefore we made other arrangements for heating our home and for providing light. Those other arrangements were always in place.
But I was really genuinely in a poor family. My dad started farming in 1935 in Saskatchewan. I do not know if members heard about the big depression out in the prairies but things were very bleak. My family started farming and for several years did not get a crop. We raised a few chickens and a few animals and we were able to live.
We never thought of ourselves as poor. There was a strong relationship not only within our immediate family but also among the neighbours. We all shared. We looked after each other. When I was a youngster we used to pile into the car, visit different neighbours and sometimes different relatives. We did not have a refrigerator so we took turns slaughtering animals for meat. One day it was this person's young heifer or a steer that got chopped up. We would all divide it up and 10 families would go away with meat for a week. The next week it went to another place and so on.
By today's standards we were living in total abject poverty. Yet we never thought of ourselves as poor. We were happy, we were loved, our parents got along well with each other and with everybody else. We enjoyed firm and loving discipline in our families and we never thought of ourselves as poor.
My mother told me one of my favourite toys was a lid from a syrup pail. I used drive around the House with that thing and push on it. That would be my horn, beep, beep. That is how we played. Those were our toys. I am very proud to announce that after I left home my father finally got on his financial feet. There may have been a correlation there. My parents are now in their mid eighties and doing very well.
We need to keep the idea of poverty in perspective. I really believe we need to help those who have genuine needs. We know they are there. However, I greatly resent that we are taxed so much in this country that we find our governments are taking away from us the joy of sharing. We no longer have enough disposable income that we can go to a person and say I see you are in need, let me help you get on your feet.
One of my favourite stories is of one of the most exciting events in my life. A number of us got together to buy not a new bed for their child but a new house. This guy came to me and said our rent is more than what I would have to pay per month if I could get into this low cost housing, but I cannot raise the down payment. I went away and thought that was a young couple we should be able to help. I got together with a bunch of my friends. None of us were very well off. I gave them the option of either giving an interest free loan or an outright gift. There were about 25 of us. We all kicked in anything from $100 to $1,000. We had the down payment for a house for this young couple. They eventually paid us back and they had their own house.
That was no government program but how many people can now afford to do that when the governments are spending half of our income for us? If they could only let us keep more of our income and cut the taxation then we could have families together.
There is no doubt in my mind that one of the greatest stresses in families is money. I also believe that one of the most important things for the security of children is to be in a secure home in which the marriage is strong. I am going to make that connection. If we can reduce the financial pressures on families, on couples, so there is less stress on the marriage, then the families will remain strong and our children will be wonderfully looked after by loving parents who care for them and who can provide for them.
We need to learn, as has been the topic all day today, that governments of all levels need to take as little as possible out of the pockets of the wage earners so they can have the pride and the dignity of providing for their own families. Enough of this crazy concept of taxing every family so heavily that both parents have to work, get two incomes and give half of their total income in taxes. Basically the income of one of the parents goes to pay taxes. Talk about shovelling wheat into the truck while the end-gate is open. It does not make any sense.
I believe we need to address the question of child poverty by addressing the question of family poverty. If we can address that and particularly make the contribution of reduced taxation to give these families financial independence, I think we will be on the way to solving the problem of child poverty because we have solved the problem of family poverty.