Mr. Speaker, Canadians have had enough of the government's inaction on the issue of poverty. That is why the Liberal Party recently announced its plan to reduce the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by at least 30% and cut in half the number of children living in poverty within five years.
Immediate action must also be taken to support the United Nations millennium development targets to reduce poverty, hunger, gender inequity, environmental damage and the rate of HIV-AIDS around the globe by 2015. This deadline is fast approaching, with much headway still to be made.
I call on the government to follow the lead of the Liberal Party and make the elimination of poverty, both in Canada and around the world, a top priority.