Madam Speaker, Canadians gave us a clear, strong mandate.
They want us to respect the money they make and they want us to respect the money that we receive in taxes. They want us to spend it very wisely.
The best way to fight poverty is to get Canadians working. Our government is doing that: 656,000 new jobs have been created since July 2009.
Our government is reaching out to help families right across the country, especially those in need. That is one of the reasons we introduced measures such as the universal child care benefit. As well, we have increased the national child benefit.
Every action that we take is to help Canadians and their families become independent and help them contribute to the economy and the community.
It is unfortunate that the NDP seems to want people to be dependent on government rather than independent from it. Sadly the NDP, as I have pointed out, has voted against every one of those initiatives that we have brought in to help the most vulnerable families.