Mr. Speaker, there is a real difference between the two sides of the House.
The changes now have caused action to happen. Over and over again we hear all those grandiose statements, but I wonder why the member's government actually cut total funding for the women's program three times in the last decade if all this concern was there.
On this side of the House, our Minister of Finance has given numerous tax cuts, including a sports credit for children under 16 years of age and $100 per child under the age of six. It does not matter if it is for single parent families; whatever it is, it is just about children.
In her speech, the member opposite was saying that one in every three mothers does not have access to EI benefits. That is a problem, but what we are trying to do all across the nation is address all children and all families in all forms to make sure that families get benefits.
Yes, advocacy can be done. Advocacy has not been shut down. It is just that we are not paying groups to come to Parliament Hill and advocate. What we would rather do is use that money. Thirty-one cents on the dollar was used previously for women's programs. We want it to be much higher, at a dollar out of a dollar if we could get it that way, and we want those dollars to be used for women's programs.
On this side of the House, there have been so many things done by all the ministries, across all departments. All of them are saying they want to work for families. We are working in collaboration. The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Minister of Health have done numerous things, and more ministers have done more things.
We believe in the status of women. We believe that we have to get rid of the barriers so women can come forward, become educated and be full participants in Canadian society at the economic level, the cultural level and every level. It is very important for all women to have the opportunity to do that.
This $100 per child really helps a lot of families. We have had feedback from numerous people across the country who are thanking us for it and saying, “We have small children and now we have choice”.