Mr. Speaker, I rose in the House to call on this government to take action to give the 1.2 million children living in poverty an equal opportunity to succeed.
This week the Minister of Families introduced his bill to reduce poverty in Canada and to lift, as he said, 650,000 people out of poverty in this country. The document is only six pages long. The Liberals retained only three points from my bill. It is a government bill, but it does not come with any funding or programs.
There is nothing in the bill for affordable child care across the country. There is nothing to ensure that our seniors and our families have access to the prescription drugs they need. There is nothing to make the guaranteed income supplement automatic for all seniors. There is nothing to provide a dental plan to those who cannot afford one or cannot afford to go to the dentist. There is nothing for social and affordable housing now. There is nothing for the creation of a guaranteed minimum income program. There is nothing for our low-income workers, who sometimes work 50 hours a week and still have to use the food bank. I could go on.
With 1.2 million children under the age of 18, or 20% of our country's children, living in a low-income household, we cannot really say that Canada has made things better for vulnerable children in the past 10 years. Child poverty primarily affects the children of recent immigrants and single-parent families, in addition to first nations.
Nathalie Appleyard, the spokesperson for Campaign 2000, a Canadian coalition of more than 120 anti-poverty organizations, criticized the bill's lack of ambition. She pointed out that even if poverty is reduced by 50% in 2030, 600,000 children will still grow up in poverty. That is a huge number for a country as rich as ours, and this is where it is clear that the government will not eliminate poverty by mailing out cheques, like it does with the Canada child benefit.
At a press conference yesterday, I said that the bill would not lift a child out of poverty. Children who are poor today will still be poor tomorrow. Campaign 2000 added, “this will not provide much comfort to the children who don't have enough to eat right now or who don't know where they will live next month.” Poverty almost always goes hand in hand with food insecurity. Many children from poor families do not have access to the nutritional resources they need.
How can the government think this is acceptable? How can it draft a bill that has no measures and no funding?
We also have to focus on one neglected group in particular: indigenous peoples. They are the most vulnerable of our vulnerable population. In Canada, 38% of indigenous children live in poverty.
Campaign 2000, which represents 120 organizations, proposes solutions for eradicating poverty. I invite my hon. colleague across the way to listen to them. They are calling on the government to increase the Canada child benefit, improve the employment insurance program, and establish a universal child care program.
On behalf of the 120 organizations that Campaign 2000 represents, but especially on behalf of the millions of people living in poverty, I am calling on the government to tell us when it will increase the Canada child benefit, improve the employment insurance program, and establish a universal child care program.