Mr. Speaker, the National Council of Welfare, a federal lead social policy agency, was very critical of the finance minister's budget at a press conference.
Its vice-president, Armand Brun, recalled that the government had promised a budget for children. “Where is that budget?”, did he ask. He went even further, saying “It is the people who do not vote in an election who have been ignored”.
And he is right. The Liberal Party chose to ignore the poor and to be generous to those who are better off. For example, the Minister of Finance preferred to lower the tax rate on capital gains, thus allowing investors to save $135 million in 2001 and $230 million in 2002.
This is the compassion shown by this Liberal government, which would rather provide new tax shelters to its rich friends than put bread and butter on the table for those who do without.