Mr. Speaker, in the latest budget, the Minister of Finance is ignoring the basic right of 1.7 million Quebec and Canadian families to affordable housing. These people are obliged to spend over 30% of their meagre income on rent.
By refusing to invest in social housing, this government is negating the major international agreements it is signatory to such as the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights.
I add my voice to those of the hundreds of thousands of women, men and children who must do without food every day in order to pay for miserable housing. I want to make known my distress at the Liberal government's refusal to consider the problems of people with housing problems a national emergency.
A study by FRAPRU reveals that one woman in four spends 50% of her income on housing, when she is the main income earner. Worse yet, families in Shawinigan have the lowest income in Quebec.
We have to assume that the Prime Minister is more interested in making his political friends rich than in relieving human suffering.