I am glad to see the debate livened up a bit. That is the way it should be. The government has completely ignored the future of our nation.
I will quote for everyone an article which is hot off the press, from Internet. Statistics Canada released information on family incomes today. This is dated March 3 at 4.40 this afternoon. It supports the old saying about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Between 1970 and 1995 average family incomes in Canada rose by 32% but that affected only the richest 30% of families. For the rest there was a slight decline. Hardest hit are families with a single female parent. Such families have almost doubled in the past 25 years and about 40% of them are in the bottom 10% of income earners.
This information is from Statistics Canada. I took it off Internet about an hour and a half ago. Those people are seriously affected by what is not in the budget. The federal government can talk about the budget benefiting its friends like John Cleghorn and Al Flood, but the fact is that it does absolutely nothing for single parent families and working people. It is a sin.
The hon. member for Palliser did not get the opportunity to mention the fact that family farmers across the country are devastated and hurt terribly by what the budget has done. There is a lack of commitment by the government to help them in their time of need.
The European Economic Community came up with $60 billion and the United States came up with $7 billion in aid for their farmers. What does our government do? It hems and haws. It even comes to the point where it denies its promise of a few months ago and reduces it by almost $300 million. It is an absolute disgrace.
I would like government members to speak to Mr. Ray Martin of Flin Flon, Manitoba; Carol Ferguson of Louisbourg; and Alex Handyside of Porters Lake. Government members are bragging; they are proud of the budget. I can give them phone numbers so they can call these people and tell them how proud they are of the budget. These are only three people from across the country who have called me to say that they are very disgusted with the budget and very disappointed in the federal government.