Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member, who is the critic for the New Democratic Party, for his party's support of the bill.
I was listening very carefully to the hon. member's speech and to some of his comments on some of the issues that we will be tackling, together I hope, both on the committee and within the lifespan of this Parliament. He raised some very important issues with which we will struggle and, as a new ministry, we will learn. As I have always said, we always must learn from the past.
A question that came up earlier concerned the seniors' supplement. I think the minute the government knew there was a problem it put measures in place to assure that ever senior who was entitled to the supplement received the supplement.
Canadians who are listening to the debate should know that 1.5 million seniors receive over $5 billion in guaranteed income supplement benefits and that since 2002, 285,000 letters were mailed out by the department to seniors who had not applied for the supplement and who might be eligible. Letters and personalized application forms using our tax system were used and over 172,000 more people subscribed.
It is the responsibility of every one of us in the chamber to make sure that even if there is one senior who is entitled to the guaranteed income supplement that the senior will have access to it. I put out a householder encouraging them to do so. If any member in the House knows of any senior who is not receiving the supplement and should be, I encourage them to please let the department and the minister know.
I also want to talk about eliminating poverty because it has been an issue in the House for far too long. Even if one child lives in poverty, we cannot be proud of that. We must make sure that we eradicate the social deficit, as the hon. member said, and as effectively as we eliminated the economic deficit in the country.
After the report of campaign 2000, certain measures were taken to decrease child poverty and poverty in general in the country. The opposition members referred to the $5 billion that is on the table for the national child care program. They said that it was a very good initiative and that we should be putting money on the table for a national child care and early learning system.
We did introduce the Canada child tax benefit which has provided $7.7 billion in income support to low and middle income families.
The member talked a lot about the poverty issue. Besides the fact that we have put measures in place and that campaign 2000 said that these measures were in the right direction, would the member say that the establishment of this new ministry is a step in the right direction in terms of assuring that programs and services will be--