Mr. Speaker, it becomes a war of statistics.
The parliamentary secretary talked about a marginal decrease in the number of food bank users. The fact is that nearly 40% of food bank users are children, 20% have a job, 20% of households live on old age security or disability benefits.
With respect to the jobs that the parliamentary secretary referred to, the government simply does not want to talk about the percentage of those jobs that are low wage, seasonal, contract, part-time employment and simply do not produce a living wage.
One of the recommendations that came out of the HungerCount 2000 called on the government to jump-start innovative partnerships in government-led programs that help ensure Canadian jobs are well paying jobs.
I would ask the parliamentary secretary if the government is prepared to undertake a review of the kinds of jobs that have been created. Would it undertake a review and make some recommendations with respect to creating good paying jobs? People simply cannot live on the kinds of jobs that have been created.