Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today in the House for the first time as the member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre, and in response to the Speech from the Throne. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the good people of Scarborough Centre for placing their trust in me to deliver the real change they need and deserve. I will work hard to be their strong and effective voice here in Ottawa.
I would like to thank all the hard-working volunteers who made my being here possible for their tireless dedication and support, particularly my husband Salman and my children Umaid and Usman. Today, I am also thinking of my parents. They are no longer with us. I lost my mother during the campaign. I would not be here without the values they instilled in me that I have carried with me throughout my journey.
I am honoured to represent Scarborough Centre. Scarborough is a community of hard-working, middle-class families. We are a community of parks, community centres, and some of the best pancit and biryani one can find outside the Philippines and South Asia. We are also one of the most diverse communities in Canada. Thousands of people from around the world have chosen Scarborough as the place they want to live, work, play, raise their families, and build a better life for their children.
The families of Scarborough Centre need help making ends meet. Families are increasingly challenged to stretch each paycheque further and further. My family came to Canada 16 years ago to build a better life for our sons. We have shared the challenges of so many Scarborough families, trying to balance paying the rent and buying groceries on entry-level wages, getting to work and school on public transit, and now, preparing to send our children to university.
Scarborough families need better transit. Gridlock is crippling Toronto and cities across Canada. This is not just an economic issue; it is a quality of life issue. Time spent in traffic means lost productivity and it means time not spent with our families. For too long, Scarborough has not had a federal partner at the table when it comes to transit. This needs to change.
I am pleased to see that so many of the priorities of the families of my riding were addressed by the Speech from the Throne. I welcome the promised historic investment in public transit, green infrastructure, and social infrastructure. This means not only badly needed new transit for communities like Scarborough and funds for community and senior centres, but also support for affordable housing.
Every Canadian deserves to have access to a safe, clean, and affordable place to live, yet today too many Canadians are living on the economic edge. According to the Canadian rental housing index, 22% of rental households in Toronto are spending more than half their household income on rent and 20% are living in overcrowded conditions. The people of Scarborough welcome the historic 10-year investment in social infrastructure. They are relieved to finally again see a federal government that understands the need to invest in affordable housing.
I am also heartened to hear about the middle-class tax cut and new Canada child benefit. That, according to the parliamentary budget officer, will lift over 315,000 Canadian children out of poverty and will benefit nine out of 10 Canadian families.
As a mother whose eldest son is now applying to universities, and with a second one who is not far behind, I also welcome the government's commitment to making post-secondary education more accessible and more affordable.
There are many young people living in my riding who are having trouble finding work, especially that first important job after college or university, to begin building their work experience. The youth unemployment rate is unacceptably higher than the overall national rate. The government's youth job strategy is badly needed in my riding.
I welcome the four-year investment in programs that will help Canadian youth enter the workforce and that will create tens of thousands of jobs every year. The youth of Scarborough will also benefit from thousands of new green jobs, help for employers to create co-op placements for science, technology, mathematics, engineering, and business students, and the restoration of a youth service program to help youth gain work and life experience by participating in community-building projects across Canada. When it comes to investing in Canada's future, there is no better investment than our young people.
Finally, I am so pleased to see the throne speech recognize something that my neighbours in Scarborough have known for so long to be true: Canada is stronger not in spite of our differences but because of them.
We have seen some unfortunate incidents recently in Canada, including in Toronto. Two Muslim women were verbally assaulted on a subway train. One was beaten and robbed and another one was allegedly spat on, and a mosque in Peterborough was a target of arson. These are the actions of a hateful minority, and they do not represent the majority of Canadians. For every hateful individual, there were many more who stood up to condemn this violence, to say, “I will ride with you”, and to say, “this is not our Canada”.
I was honoured recently to join the Prime Minister and the Minister of Democratic Institutions as the community rallied together to reopen that mosque. The message that day was very clear: a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
In Scarborough we are Christian and Catholic, Muslim and Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish. We speak English and French but also Tamil and Tagalog, Mandarin and Cantonese, Greek and Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali. We may come from many places, but we share the important things in common: our love for our families and for this great country and our desire to build an even better Canada for our children.
We enjoy an unparalleled equality of opportunity in Canada. I immigrated to Canada 16 years ago. We first moved to a small apartment in Regent Park, where I started a catering service, making kebabs and curries, to supplement our income while taking care of two toddlers, and now, today, I stand in the House as a member of Parliament. This is the Canada that is the envy of the world, and this is the proof of what the Prime Minister says, that in Canada, better is always possible.
I look forward to working with all my hon. colleagues in this place to make the commitments in this throne speech a reality and to deliver the real change that middle-class families need and deserve.