Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Vancouver East for her strong advocacy on behalf of her constituents, and for bringing forward this emergency debate this evening. This is a fundamental issue. These are the kinds of issues that we should be debating a lot more in the House of Commons.
What this does is take us away from some of the obsessions we have seen in Parliament, corporate tax cuts being one, and puts us front and square on the main streets of this nation. In this case, we are talking literally of Main Street and East Hastings, which is the epicentre of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country. It is the epicentre for what we can see as a result of this debate and what has been said this evening. It is also the epicentre of an epidemic of HIV-AIDS among Canadians of aboriginal origin at this time.
I would like to say at the outset that I do not believe this is a partisan issue at all, as the member for Vancouver East said initially when she was leading off the debate this evening. She said she hoped that all four corners of the House and members from all parties would come together to move forward, so that we could begin to deal with this crisis, this epidemic, and in some way begin to find solutions for what is out there.
She suggested a number of solutions this evening. The member for Burnaby—Douglas, who just spoke, has made a number of suggestions, as did the member for Nanaimo—Cowichan. I hope the Minister of Health is taking careful note of what has been said thus far in this emergency debate. I hope that he right now is working diligently with his assistants in the health ministry to put in place an action plan to deal with this crisis.
This is an emergency debate tonight because it is a crisis and I certainly hope that the government will be looking to respond in a very fulsome and effective way as soon as possible, within the next day or two.
I was a bit discouraged, to be honest, by his comments earlier this evening, and I may have misunderstood, when he appeared to blame the victims of this epidemic. I hope I misunderstood and the Minister of Health and the government can certainly prove that I had misunderstood by bringing forward an action plan as quickly as possible, hopefully by early next week, so that we can begin to deal with this issue.
I would like to pick up where the member for Burnaby—Douglas left off. He was speaking about prohibition times almost a century ago and the lessons that we as Canadians should have learned from that time. It was an interesting series of comments he made in his excellent speech, particularly because the economic conditions that existed around the time of prohibition exist again today.
This is the sad shame and tragedy of what has happened over the last 20 years economically in this country. Essentially, we are recreating the same conditions that we had around the time of prohibition and, later, the Great Depression. This is not just limited to Canada. In the United States, we see similar levels of income inequality, as we well know.
The United States now, according to many economic indicators, has the same level of income inequality that existed in 1928. We have turned the clock back economically in the United States to a time prior to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's new deal, prior to the array of social programs that were put into place.
In Canada, we are seeing a similar situation. Through the actions of the previous government and the present government, we are now looking at levels of inequality that existed in the period of the Great Depression.
The poorest of the poor in Canada, the poorest 20% of Canadians, have actually seen a collapse of their incomes. They are now essentially living on the same income that they used to earn in 10.5 months in 1989. Today, they are earning essentially a month and a half less of income even though they may be working full time or through employment insurance, if they can access it, or welfare, which is increasingly difficult to access. They are living on far fewer resources.
This is extremely important, because as the member for Vancouver East said, and the members for Nanaimo—Cowichan and Burnaby—Douglas echoed, these are economic, social and health policy issues that fundamentally need to be addressed. At the same time there has been this catastrophic fall in the incomes of the poorest of Canadians. We know that aboriginal Canadians are among the poorest of the poor and share the sad title with Canadians with disabilities, with the poorest level of income in this country, levels of income that provoke the kinds of social situations that, as the member for Vancouver East said so eloquently, mirror third world conditions here at home. Because of that, we are seeing the tragedy of the downtown eastside of Vancouver where individuals who are able to access welfare are trying to live on $600 a month when the minimum cost to keep a roof over their heads is $1,300 a month. It simply does not add up.
They are simply living on less than half of the income that is required for any sort of sustainable living. As the member for Burnaby—Douglas said, we are talking about individuals who do not have access to housing, do not have access to dental care, do not have access to a simple telephone. They do not have access to the job market because of all those barriers, putting aside the immense tragedy of the residential schools and the racism that aboriginal Canadians have faced in society.
After the legacy of residential schools and of racism these individuals now find themselves in the downtown eastside living on incomes far below any incomes that are sustainable. It is not surprising that as a result of that we see higher levels of HIV-AIDS because of the misery and the hopelessness of the legacy of where they have come from and what is actually being provided to them in social supports.
This is not something that any of us can feel is alien to our experience. There is not a single person in the House who is immune from addiction, who is immune from the kinds of tragedies that we are seeing now in the downtown eastside. Any member here, as the result of the loss of a loved one, as the result of a personal tragedy, the loss of a job, the loss of income could find himself or herself in a situation where he or she becomes addicted.
We are not talking about Canadians who have a different set of circumstances from one that might cause any of us to become addicted. We are talking about human beings who, through immense adversity, find themselves in appalling conditions and are seeking our help. As a result of that we should be looking to provide programs that are culturally appropriate and programs that actually give the kind of solace and the lifting up that is required, but we do not see this from the government.
As the member for Vancouver East said, we are talking about hundreds of low income housing units in the area of Vancouver that have been closed over the past decade and a half. We are talking about federal funding cuts to outreach workers and to health care funding. Essentially we are talking about the federal government's lack of intervention, lack of supports contributing to, and in a very real sense worsening, the problem.
I will conclude by reading a few paragraphs from the study that was done by Dr. . Evan Wood about the incidence of HIV infection among aboriginal injection drug users. He said:
Aboriginal persons currently represent approximately 3% of the Canadian population but more than 20% of the incarcerated population, and many of these cases relate to illicit drug offences.
Our findings suggest the need for immediate action on the part of health policymakers. A plan of action will require policymakers to recognize that addiction is primarily a health and social issue and to acknowledge the harms of seeking to address addiction through a strategy that largely relies on law enforcement as an isolated intervention. These harms disproportionately affect the most vulnerable injection drug users.
Our cry tonight is for the government to take action and to be effective. We certainly hope the Minister of Health has heard our cry.