Mr. Speaker, this week we mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Some years ago the House unanimously passed a motion to eliminate child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Not only has child poverty not been eliminated, it has actually increased. Food banks and school lunch programs abound all across our nation.
Impoverished children come from impoverished families. Canada is a prosperous nation by international standards but wealth in this nation is not always equitably distributed. The unemployed, single parent families and aboriginal families have great difficulty making ends meet. In many third world countries outright famine is a cruel daily reality.
It is time to rededicate ourselves to the eradication of poverty and we would do well to remember that poverty, wherever it exists, is everybody's business.