Madam Speaker, I cannot believe Conservatives would heckle me on this. I am telling an impassioned story about my eight-year-old and a lesson that he learned, and the member from Peterborough feels that this is an appropriate time to heckle.
Nonetheless, the point is that my eight-year-old learned an incredible lesson about the stereotypes, not needing to rely on them or to stigmatize people, and that this was genuinely about an opportunity for kids, in particular those who need it, to access food without having a stereotype attached to them.
That is what this is really about. I do not want my eight-year-old and six-year-old to be in a classroom with kids who are picked on because they have to go to a special basket to get food. That is why I completely agree with my NDP colleagues that this absolutely must be universal. It is the only way it can work, and it will certainly break down stereotypes.
The Conservatives are against this. They want no part of it. The Conservatives voted against it when it came before the House previously, and when it was in committee, they started to put forward motions that had to do with the carbon tax. They could not even set aside their differences on an issue as simple and easy to justify as putting food in the stomachs of children and, in particular, getting it to the kids who really need it. I find it really discouraging that we continually see the Conservative Party of Canada take this approach.
The Conservatives will be the first to talk about food bank usage, as their one speaker so far has done today, but they have absolutely nothing to offer when it comes to solutions, other than saying that if we get rid of a tax, all of a sudden, poof, poverty is going to be eliminated. That is what the Conservatives would like to sell to the Canadian people: If we just get rid of this tax, nobody will ever need to utilize any kind of social resources to access food ever again because everything will just suddenly and magically be better for everyone. That is not reality. Food banks have been around for decades. I remember volunteering at the food bank in Kingston when I was in high school. That was a long time ago. That was 30 years ago. The reality is that food banks have become a stable source for taking care of people, in particular those in need.
What Bill C-322 would do is establish a national framework for a school food program. It mandates the Minister of Employment and Social Development, in consultation with the Minister of Health, provincial governments, indigenous governing bodies and other relevant stakeholders, to develop a framework to establish a national school food program. The bill requires the government to develop, post online and report on a national framework that would broadly set out the contents of a school food program. It says the minister must, within one year of the act coming into force, prepare a report setting out the national framework and table the report before each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which the House is sitting after the report is completed.
The bill also states that within five years of tabling the report:
the Minister must undertake a review of the effectiveness of the national framework and prepare a report setting out his or her conclusions and recommendations regarding the national framework
The bill, of course, does not impose any conditions on provinces or territories because we understand and respect the need to work with the provinces and territories.
Coming toward the conclusion of my speech, I will reflect on some of the comments that I heard from my NDP colleague moments ago when she spoke. She challenged the Liberals to ensure that this program is seen through. She challenged the Liberals to make sure that the government does it. I would remind the NDP and her that we had a supply and confidence agreement that had another year left in it.
The NDP is now in a very similar situation with the national school food program that it was in in 2006 with a national housing program aimed at working with provinces. All of the right components were in place and a motion was set out to deliver a housing plan throughout the country. What did the NDP then do? We have a lot of respect for Jack Layton around here, and he did a lot of great things, but he also triggered an election.
Stephen Harper got elected and a number of things were affected by that, such as Kyoto, and as a result, the NDP did not end up getting the housing plan that it had been a part of putting together in 2006. I say to my NDP colleagues to be very careful. They have the power here to see this national school food program come to fruition. They have the power because it is all in their hands to make sure that we have the ability to deliver on this. It is one thing to call on us to do this. It is another thing to accept the fact that they have the responsibility to Canadians to ensure that it is seen through to the end.