Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question because it allows me to say two or three points which I forgot to mention. By the way, I did not write out my speech, as she could probably tell.
Not only did I listen to the Minister of Finance, I was in the lockup and read all the documents for four straight hours. Therefore, it is not as though this were some kind of a flippant response.
First let me inform my hon. friend that a mother on social assistance raising children does not get the child tax benefit. It is clawed back by the provincial government and the member should know that.
When the member goes home next week I would ask her to visit some of the families in her constituency. Ask them how delighted they are with the federal budget. I know what she is going to hear. They probably do not even know there was a federal budget and thank goodness because they were overlooked in it.
Should I or they be thankful for this little tiny handout? That is like walking down the street and getting mugged. Somebody takes your wallet with all your money and credit cards and then says “By the way pal, here is your wallet back” and you are supposed to be thankful for getting the wallet back.
If all the minister has to say about child poverty is that there is going to be, in her own mind, some minute benefit because of the GST—minute benefit I believe are her own words—if that is the only initiative that the government has taken, I would hope that she would feel kind of badly.
The first part of her question was that investing in productivity will eventually benefit poor people. Boy, there is Ms. Trickle Down herself. This is trickle down economics at its best: give breaks to the wealthy; give breaks to some of the big corporations; give certain select tax breaks and grants; wait for a few weeks, months or years and eventually some will trickle down. Canadians have told her many times they do not want to be trickled on any more. They want some trickle up economics, not trickle down economics.