Mr. Speaker, poverty is an extremely critical issue in my riding. As I mentioned in my inaugural speech, one out of every four children in my riding lives statistically below the poverty line. Children do not live in poverty by themselves. They live in families. That means there are thousands of families in our ridings that are poor.
In 1989 the House made an all party commitment to try to eliminate child poverty by what I think was the year 2000. We did not meet that goal. It is very important that we in the House recommit ourselves to that process.
I listened to the government in the throne speech and in the answers in question period. It talked about how the economy was in decent shape and about the steps the government had taken. It is taking credit for making things better for Canadians. That is not the experience for many of the children and people in Vancouver Kingsway, British Columbia or across the country.
We need a strong employment insurance program. We need better transfers to the provinces so social supports are present for all families. We need to protect Canadian jobs—