Mr. Speaker, I stand corrected. The new minister has clearly been listening with respect to the issues. He has made changes to enable us to meet the demands on us and go forward on the issues. I am pleased the government is responding to the pressures it is hearing about from cities regarding their need for help in a variety of forms.
I will speak to the issue of child poverty. Our commitment to children has been reaffirmed in every speech from the throne since the National Children's Agenda was announced in 1997. In the 2001 Speech from the Throne the government challenged Canadians, stating:
Now Canadians must undertake another national project—to ensure that no Canadian child suffers the debilitating effects of poverty.
To this end we have invested $2.2 billion in the Early Childhood Development initiative which increased the child care expense deduction and the Canada Child Tax Benefit.
We are continuing our commitment to our country, our cities and our citizens. We are continuing to look for solutions to all the problems. Finding answers will not be easy. However as true Canadians who care about the issues we are setting out to find new ways of dealing with our cities and the stresses they are under, all the while respecting the constitution and working with our partners to achieve our goals.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the issue today. We will go forward and build a country of which we can all be proud