Mr. Speaker, before Christmas I had the opportunity in the House to ask a question of the then minister of social development on the issue of homelessness. I had travelled the country at that point from coast to coast, meeting with people who were struggling with the very terrible challenge of poverty. In every community the issue that came up most often was the question of housing and homelessness. I made a case to the minister that perhaps as a government and a House of Parliament we could declare a state of emergency. At that point, many people had died in a state of homelessness either directly or indirectly as a result of the terrible weather we were facing.
I was disappointed in the response from the minister. It was petty and it was partisan. I thought an issue like homelessness would call for a larger response and a non-partisan response. I thought we could work together to deal with this terrible reality that exists for too many people.
I have now been to Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, Saskatoon and just last week Castlegar and Penticton. Everywhere I go, large numbers of people speak to me about poverty. The common thread is the question of affordable housing and the issue of homelessness.
We have terrible homelessness in our larger centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. It is so cold and yet people are sleeping on the streets. There just is no housing any more. Housing built in the seventies and eighties is deteriorating. There has been no national housing program in our country, particularly under the leadership of the previous government. No affordable housing has been built for about 15 years. The existing affordable housing is deteriorating and falling apart. It is disease ridden. In Vancouver and Toronto I heard about bed bugs and cockroaches and people with TB and pneumonia. That should not exist in a country that is so wealthy and experiencing such prosperity.
I asked the minister to respond to me in terms of what all of us together could do to alleviate that terrible situation.
When I arrived in Calgary, I was shocked and alarmed at the situation that existed. That city probably represents the new wealth and prosperity in the country in a way that no other city does. I spent a good part of the evening at a shelter on a very cold night where between 1,000 and 1,200 people bedded down, and they do this on a nightly basis. City buses will pick up people who cannot get in and take them to the suburbs where they are bedded down on mats in warehouses. There are probably another 100 to 200 beds at places like the Salvation Army, et cetera across the city. They count these people every night. Between 3,500 and 4,000 people are homeless in Calgary. The rest of those folks span out across downtown Calgary. They sleep under bridges and in parks. Meanwhile the municipal council of Calgary is passing laws to make this illegal. Many of these people, because there is no other choice or option it seems--