Mr. Speaker, I did take a couple of notes during the member's speech to start this debate during which he bragged about health care, child poverty, cities, tax cuts and the homeless.
What are we talking about on health care? Is the government proud of the fact that the federal contribution to health care has gone from 13¢ to 14¢? The government is still the junior partner. It is no wonder Ralph Klein thumbs his nose at the health care system in this country. It is because Liberal members are not paying their freight.
On the child poverty issue, I have to refer the member to the stats. Statistics Canada has said that child poverty has remained relatively stable over the past 10 years. The government may think it is doing great things in terms of its various programs, but those things are not being borne out by statistics from its own departmental officials. The $150 million in infrastructure that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities have would build about four meters of highway in Saskatchewan.
Does the member want to know where I would save some money? I would save money on tax cuts. If the $100 billion that was announced on the eve of the 2000 election campaign had been directed to some of the social programs that it should have been directed to, it would have done a lot more, but it was a response to the Canadian Alliance at the time and an issue with which to go to the Canadian public.
What has happened on the homeless file, aside from the fact that the government has recently changed ministers in that area? We do not see any improvement. One need only take a walk in the Bytown area and look at the number of people with their caps out and their hands out looking for a donation to buy a cup of coffee. This used to be quite foreign. This was not something we encountered in larger cities but, unfortunately, it is becoming much more common. I think the parliamentary secretary needs to acknowledge some of these shortfalls.
Yes, a lot more should be done. I hope the government will do that in a future budget. The New Democratic Party, like other opposition parties, does participate in budget consultations. We hear what Canadians have to say when we go across the country. We are often disappointed when we see how little of that is reflected when the following February rolls around and the budget is introduced.