Mr. Speaker, I remind the Prime Minister that the surpluses which are making him so happy were generated by plunging tens of thousands of families into poverty.
The 1.4 million Canadian children living in poverty want the Prime Minister to know that a poor child is a child who does not have equal opportunity, because he does not have the necessary resources to fulfil his potential.
A poor child is a child who lives in a family where his health or his parents' health is deficient because of a lack of financial, physical and psychological resources.
A poor child is a child who lives in a family that must spend a large part of its meagre income on rent.
A poor child is a child who lives in a family where unemployment is the norm, for lack of stable jobs.
Mister Prime Minister, when you drive parents to poverty, when you drive the provinces that must meet their needs to poverty, it is the children you are targeting, and that is a shame.