Mr. Speaker, here we go again. True to form, the Liberals just cannot get it through their heads that the Canadian people defeated them in the polls on January 23. Why? Because the Liberals chose to ignore the needs of working families; because the Liberals chose to put all their money into tax breaks for corporations; because they refused to put money into health care, child care and education.
The mover of the Liberal motion asked how could I talk about greater poverty in this country given the statistics. I will show him the statistics. I will talk to him about those statistics.
A recent report by Statistics Canada in fact showed that the disposable income inequality was virtually unchanged in 1990 compared to 1980, but grew sharply between 1990 and 2000. The result is a long term increase in disposable income inequality. During the same period the use of food banks increased 118%, so that today over 800,000 Canadians depend on food banks every month. I have already mentioned child poverty in relation to our 1989 motion.
The fact of the matter is that some people are better off. The wealthy in this country are more wealthy after years of Liberal government. The poor, the low income and working families struggle each and every day because the government has refused to invest in what is important, has refused to recognize that when a family is in trouble and the roof is leaking, the leaky roof has to be fixed before the mortgage is paid off. That is what the government does not get. That is what the Liberals do not get and that is what the Liberals ought to do.