Mr. Speaker, one in six Canadians lives in poverty. That is 5.8 million Canadians. When I consulted people in my riding prior to introducing my poverty reduction bill, business people told me that this statistic is not helping our economic development. Groups made it clear that investing too little in poverty reduction is costing us more than investing enough.
Investing in universal child care would enable people to go back to work full time. Investing in pharmacare would save Canadian employees and employers billions.
Does my colleague agree that investing in these measures would enable us to boost economic development? Ultimately, whatever it costs the government would come back to us fivefold.
It is important to invest in poverty reduction. Does my colleague agree?