Mr. Speaker, the answer to the question of what happened to the commitment to eliminate child poverty in this country, a commitment made by all parliamentarians in this Chamber 12 years ago, is exactly what we fear go will happen to the “commitment” to eliminate child poverty, which is yet again in the throne speech. It is so totally lacking in any kind of comprehensive strategy precisely because it is a statement of intentions without any facts or figures. There are no hard dollars and no specific programs.
The first event the New Democratic Party launched in the last election campaign was an event to address the issue of child poverty. Ever since then I have worn on my lapel a pin given to me by the anti-poverty workers, specifically workers in the field of child care and child development. It is a pin that reads “Children First”.
If the government really meant what is stated in the throne speech and what is stated by the Prime Minister this afternoon when he talks about the head start program, we would not be pretending that this is something new that has been discovered. With all due respect to the member for Don Valley West, I applaud the fact that he has spoken to the importance of the head start and early childhood development programs, but I had the sense that the Prime Minister was Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long sleep this afternoon when he talked about the head start program being something new. I was working in the head start movement in 1964.
For 40 years it has been proven that if one is serious about giving children the best possible start in life then one has to eliminate the poverty that exists in families and in communities.
Giving children a head start is not just a slogan. If we are serious about eliminating poverty then we must make sure that they have adequate nutrition. That means decent incomes. We must make sure they have decent housing so that when they go to school they can actually learn instead of suffer from the fact that they have not been able to sleep because they are too cold or they are living in crowded conditions or, worse still, on the street.
The short answer is that this slogan has still not been translated into the kind of concrete initiatives needed to get the job of eliminating poverty done. That is why we call for a budget. That is why we call for the allocation of dollars, so that this slogan can be translated into something real in terms of giving kids the best possible start in life.