Mr. Speaker, human poverty is more than income poverty. It is the denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life. The year 2000 is a call for jubilee, a chance for a new beginning for people in countries enslaved by debts they can never repay.
We do not expect people who go bankrupt to sacrifice the health and education of their children to continue paying their debts. Yet we jeopardize the survival of people in less developed countries by forcing them to pay back debts that have already been paid many times over. Since 1981 these countries have paid over $3 trillion U.S. in interest and principal payments. For every dollar they get in western aid they pay back $3 in debt servicing.
I have received hundreds of requests from my constituents in The Pas, Thompson, Pine Falls and Flin Flon who believe Canada should cancel the debts of the most impoverished developing countries. Let us mark the millennium by being a leader among the G-8 nations.