Madam Speaker, I know my colleague from Dauphin--Swan River was active in his municipality and I believe at one point in time he was the mayor of Dauphin. I want to get his comments on some quality of life reports issued by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. These reports are sent to each of our offices.
Earlier in the debate the member for Winnipeg North Centre mentioned a report by one of the welfare groups as well as reports from Campaign 2000. These reports provided some specifics and percentages about where incomes were and how people in communities were being affected.
I want to highlight some comments from a Federation of Canadian Municipalities paper and get the member's thoughts on them. The federation has a quality of life indicator for 20 cities. It has been putting out reports for some time now. This one states:
While average inflation adjusted incomes have grown in most QOLRS communities, a closer look confirms that middle and lower income households have lost ground and that households from “minority” or “vulnerable” populations have not shared in the benefits of economic growth. Only the wealthiest 30% of families and 20% of individuals in the 20 QOLRS municipalities enjoyed any increase in before tax inflation adjusted income between 1990 and 2000. In contrast, the before tax income of low and modest income individuals--the bottom 30% on the income scale of all unattached individuals--decreased by 10% or more during this time.... In general, income growth among “minority” or “vulnerable” groups was substantially lower than their “majority” counterparts.
Even the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has made a point of mentioning this. It knows that in order for communities to be viable and sustainable, families need incomes that can support their communities. It goes on further in its report to mention a number of different things with regard to that.
Does my colleague think the budget will do any good to help in the areas where the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has indicated there is a problem?