Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for this opportunity to further illustrate that the government is not fulfilling its obligations to properly manage the programs that Canadians need and deserve.
The primary issue we are addressing this evening is the Conservatives' mishandling of the summer career placement program.
For months and months, students and organizations across Canada have been forced to wait in limbo to find out if there would be funding for the important summer career placement program.
Organizations, like the Boys and Girls Club in my riding of Davenport, have been left in limbo and unable to plan for their summer programming.
If the Conservatives had introduced a new program, perhaps the delay might be understandable, even if it is still unacceptable. However, it instead announced a repackaged, watered down and underfunded program that inevitably will leave many volunteer, not for profit organizations unable to provide desperately needed services to their communities.
It seems that in its haste to appear green, the Conservative government is simply recycling old programs while at the same time stripping them of their needed funding.
Let me be absolutely clear. If there are ways to make programs better, then all the better and I will be supporting them, but funding should not be cut for programs that help those most in need.
We see this trend in almost every file, from the environment, to student jobs, literacy, women's equality, and the list goes on. In program after program, the Conservatives are undermining Canadians' social programs and then telling Canadians that they are putting new investments into them.
If the government is going to undermine important programs for the neediest communities, it should at least have the courage to own up to them and allow Canadians a clear decision on its performance.
When will the government reinvest the money that it has cut back into student jobs, literacy, women's programs and the like?