Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the remarks from the member for Mississauga West when he talked about fighting over the spoils of the surplus budget and resounding numbers of our economy.
As we know if we have watched television or read newspapers lately, we see there are some resounding numbers in our economy. Homelessness, for example, is at a record level. It is almost a national disaster and it is certainly a national embarrassment. This is something the Liberals have been architects of, so I agree with the member for Mississauga West about that resounding number.
The member should look at the resounding numbers of people living in poverty. There are more than half a million children living in poverty and in hunger since 1993 than before the Liberals were elected. Those are resounding numbers and they are resounding in the sense of absolute embarrassment of the Liberal government's policies.
We are hoping that in the coming budget these issues will be addressed. In Regina the employment insurance benefits for people who deserve benefits because they are unemployed and have paid into the system are no longer being provided. The worst record in the country is in Regina where only 19% of unemployed people who have paid into the employment benefit system qualify for benefits. The government arbitrarily has attacked those people who need the insurance help the most from the employment insurance program. These are resounding bad numbers of the government.
I wonder what the member for Mississauga West has to say about these issues which are very disastrous for the Liberal government and what are its plans in the budget to address the issue of homelessness, poverty and the unemployed who are not receiving the benefits they deserve.