Mr. Speaker, the member forgets that during the term of this government unemployment has declined. It is a generational switch. We are down to 6.9% and we will take it down further.
The member opposite talks about child poverty. The latest data shows that the incidence of children living in low income families declined from 21.1% in 1996 to 19.8% in 1997. Is that good enough? Probably not. As a result, 100,000 fewer children are living in families with low incomes.
However, a real problem remains and there is room for action. This government has acted on this with the child benefit program, with a huge commitment of approximately $7 billion annually once it is fully in place.
While the member talks about this doom and gloom scenario, we should recognize the huge progress that we have made and the progress we will make in the future. With a growing and strong economy, we will be able to devote more resources to the issues that the member is referring to. If we had not taken the measures that were needed to bring the deficit under control, we would not be having this debate today. We would still be reducing the deficit. We have achieved that and we now have to have a good debate on what to do with the surpluses.