Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to have a chance to say a few words about the state of child poverty in our country.
I remember a very wise person once saying that you can tell a great deal about a society when you see how it cares for its children. On that count the federal government has to be somewhat embarrassed. This morning, probably in the richest country in the world, 1.4 million children woke up living in poverty.
As someone said recently in this House, when a parent fails to provide basic food, shelter and clothing for a child they are often charged with child abuse. It is considered to be a form of child abuse when you deprive a young child of decent food, clothing and shelter. Yet when a government does that it is called balancing the budget or getting the fundamentals in place, or some various of that.
The reality is tens of thousands of children every week in our country have to go to food banks with their parents in order to survive. Tens of thousands of young children from coast to coast to coast are living in conditions that are completely unacceptable. They are living in little dark, damp basement suites, tiny cubicles in overcrowded tenements, forced to stay in a broken down motel on social services in some community.
When we consider that the richest country in the world has a government that stands passively by and is prepared to accept the reality that 1.4 million children must live in poverty, it is nothing short of immoral. We should be embarrassed as a Parliament and as a country. The government should place as the highest priority to take steps to ensure that these children no longer have to live their lives in poverty.
I suspect there are some people who would say that is just the way the world is, there are no alternatives and there are always poor children. That is not the case. There are many countries where there are no poor children. Norway has no poor children. There are no poor children in Denmark. The reason there are no poor children in Denmark or Norway is there are no poor parents living in those countries.
They have social and support programs that place a value on children and young people. When a mother has to leave her place of work in order to bear a child she gets a year's leave at 90% salary. The father gets a leave up to a year with 90% salary. That country puts a priority on parents being able to be there at that very crucial young age to nurture, develop and support and to give that young child the kind of break in life he or she deserves.
What do we say to the 1.4 million children who live in poverty? It means they are being denied a whole set of things in their lives that they should not be denied. I realize poverty does not necessarily mean that you live a deprived lifestyle but it certainly goes a long way to see that reality.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops said that for the Government of Canada to stand passively by and allow 1.4 million children to live in poverty is in fact a form of child abuse.