Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have a brief opportunity to address the member for Burnaby—Douglas who has given us a very good sense of what this budget means in terms of people's everyday lives.
In my riding of Vancouver East a lot of low income housing, or what we call single room occupancies, has been closed down and low income people are being evicted. Housing is being lost at an alarming rate. Just recently, a number of people in the downtown east side took over a building. Is it any wonder homelessness and destitution are growing on the streets not only in the downtown east side but in other communities across the country?
The member for Burnaby—Douglas has outlined very well the situation in his own riding with respect to the cuts made to the summer student career program and the cuts made to the literacy program. We have to ask the question: Who benefits from this budget? Who are the winners and who are the losers, especially when the cuts are stacked up against the $13 billion surplus that could have been reinvested in substantial programs that people in this country really need?
One group that gets overlooked for sure by the government are new Canadians. As the very able citizenship and immigration critic for our party, my colleague knows that new Canadians want to settle into their new communities and learn English, and yet those programs have been cut back. We have seen that in British Columbia.
I wonder if he would comment on the need for investment in these areas given the fact that we have a $13 billion surplus at the federal level.