Mr. Speaker, at a time when my home town is struggling to make Hamilton the best place to raise a child, our community's efforts are being undermined by the federal government.
A devastating report by UNICEF ranks the well-being of children in Canada at a deplorable 17th out of 29 rich countries, a score that has not budged in almost a decade. Canada scored below average on a number of criteria, including obesity and child poverty.
We know that children are not poor; it is their parents who are poor. The Conservative government is making things worse, instead of better. The Conservatives are attacking collective bargaining rights, abandoning pay equity and kicking workers off of EI unless they take a 30% pay cut. They are also taking jobs away from Canadian workers and legislating lower pay for the foreign workers who replace them.
It was in 1989 that the House unanimously adopted the NDP motion to end child poverty by the year 2000. Clearly, we still have a long way to go. Canada can and must do better.
In honour of this year's Mother's Day, let us finally make the well-being of our children a national priority.