Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague's comments.
It is very true we have witnessed under this government an increase in the incidence of child poverty that has added 500,000 more children to the ranks of poverty in the country. It is a disgrace.
That is why we challenge the government on its sense of priorities. What does it say about the priorities of the government and the finance minister, that they would bring in a measure which gives $8,000 extra to every millionaire in the country while there is not a single benefit for the one million children in the country who do not have enough food to eat? What does it say about the government's priorities?
It is not that the government does not know what can be done and what must be done to address the problem of poverty. It gutted the unemployment insurance system. Many families are not receiving the income replacement for which they have paid insurance premiums.
The government has so slashed federal transfers to provinces that the social assistance system is no longer working to keep people out of poverty. One of the things about which I will have a lot more to say in the days ahead is that it is absolutely clear, as the government congratulates itself on its health budget, that it has no intention of increasing transfers for education and for social welfare over the next five years.
With that so clear, so apparent, so transparent in the budget, there is every reason to be even more fearful about the lot of over one million poor children.
In conclusion, that is why it is time, 10 years later, after all-party endorsement of a resolution to eliminate child poverty within a decade, for us to rededicate ourselves and make the elimination of child poverty the real millennium project for all of Canada.