Mr. Speaker, following the last meeting with G8 leaders, the Prime Minister announced that the health of women and children must be a priority. Determinants of health include adequate housing, access to nutritious food, and quality child care.
Budget 2010 will be the final year of the government's meagre commitment to affordable housing, emergency shelters, and the homeless.
In my community, this means My Sister's Place, a resource centre for women struggling with abuse or mental issues, will have to find other sources to make up the more than $145,000 in federal funding or eliminate staff and programs that help the very people the Prime Minister said should be a priority.
Budget 2010 provides a small increase of $3.25 a week for families with young children, but zero new child care spaces. When it comes to putting our money where the Conservatives' mouths are, they give that money to the big banks and oil companies, and leave women and children behind.