Madam Speaker, I, too, want to add my congratulations to your appointment as Acting Speaker in the House and appreciate the work you are doing.
I want to ask the parliamentary secretary about an aspect of his speech that was glaringly absent and shockingly missing, as it was with respect to the Speech from the Throne. It has to do with people with disabilities for whom he has responsibility.
In his position as parliamentary secretary, he will know that people with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty. Fifty-five per cent of Canadians with disabilities are unemployed. That rate rises to 75% among women. Two million Canadians do not have the aids and supports they need to work and to participate equally in their communities.
The government has to begin to do something.
First, does the parliamentary secretary have any kind of sense of how the government will advance quickly toward the ratification of the UN convention? Second, will he do something he refused to do in the last Parliament, which is to work with us to ensure there is a subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Human Resources to deal specifically with the concerns of people with disabilities?