Mr. Speaker, there are words in the motion that are worthy of note and respect. In fact, the motion says that women's equality is a matter of human rights. I think most people in the House would agree with that.
The motion calls for an adequate supply of high-quality child care spaces. It says that this is essential. It talks about the need in Canada for a national housing strategy. Of course that is an essential program for Canadians and one that most Canadians lament losing.
We have had, until the last two years, 13 years of Liberal governments. Three of those governments were majority governments. Yet the Liberals never implemented a national child care program in our country. In fact, I remember the red book in the 1993 campaign, when the Liberals came to government after defeating a Progressive Conservative government. In that red book the Liberals solemnly promised to bring in 150,000 child care spaces. I remember them going across the country saying that.
When the Liberals were defeated in 2006, the Liberals had not implemented any national child care program. Canada is one of the few developed countries in the world without a national child care program. Canada is also one of only two developed countries without a national housing program. The Liberals cut the national housing program when they had a majority government.
In the motion the members of the official opposition are trying to blame the opposition parties in the House of Commons for their defeat in the 2006 election. The reality is the people of Canada became very tired of Liberal scandals. The Gomery commission came out with a great report, documenting Liberal scandal and corruption.
Canadians became tired of Liberal inaction on the items that they had promised election campaign after election campaign. Canadians were the people who defeated the Liberal government.
I want to highlight what a few Liberals have said about their defeat in 2006. One quote says that the Conservatives won “because Canadians believed they had to take power from the Liberals”. Who said that? It was Liberal candidate Bob Rae, who is running in a byelection right now.
Another quote, after the fall of the Liberal government in 2006, is by the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore. He said, “There are aspects of our party that are sick as hell. We are a deeply factionalized and divided party. The test of things will be to find a leader who can bring us together”.
This quote is from ex-Liberal aide, Tom Axworthy. He said that the Liberal government's national day care program was “a deathbed repentance”.
The hypocrisy in this motion is staggering, when the Liberals blame the opposition parties for their defeat in 2006. The hypocrisy of the official opposition is absolutely overwhelming, and Canadians will see through it.
Let us look at the Liberal record on women during the 13 years the Liberals were in government. We had no child care, no pay equity, no national housing program. They made changes to the employment insurance program, which disenfranchised women and made it much more difficult for women to access benefits under employment insurance. That is what the Liberal government did.
In March 1997 the then secretary of state for the Status of Women, the member for Vancouver Centre, eliminated program funding for women's organizations. The Liberals disbanded the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Program funding for women's organizations was cut by more than 25% over the 1990s, while the Liberals had majority governments.
It is not only the Liberals who have impacted negatively on the lives of Canadian women. The Conservative government cut an additional $5 million to Status of Women Canada. It has eliminated any funding for research and advocacy for women's equality rights. It reduced the Status of Women Canada budget by 38.5%. The government has even removed the word “equality” from the mandate of Status of Women programs and taken out the whole raison d'être for women's struggle for equality in our country.
We can look back also at the years when the Liberals had majority governments and see what they did with respect to social programs.
Starting in 1996, the Liberal government cut over $25 billion from transfers for health, education, social assistance. The Liberals eliminated the Canada assistance plan in their 1995 budget. They changed employment insurance and based it on eligibility of hours worked rather than weeks worked, which disproportionately hurt women.
In their 1996 budget, the Liberals ended the federal role in social housing by cutting it out totally. We see the devastation on the streets of every city and community in Canada. Homeless people are living and sleeping on the streets. Twenty years ago, people would have said that would be impossible in a country as wealthy as Canada, and now we see it every day in every region across the country. The Liberals cut any federal role in social housing in Canada.
What did the Liberal government do with the surpluses it started to register in 1998? Did it reinvest in education? Did it reinvest in housing? Did it reinvest in women's programs? No. Did the Liberals invest any of it in child care? No, they did not. They allocated over $1 billion to tax cuts, while programs that benefited women, children and the disenfranchised in Canada were left out.
In 1993, and I remember this well, the Liberals promised to create 150,000 child care spaces. After 13 years of government, three of them majority governments, they created none. We still have a crisis in Canada with child care. In fact, my son and daughter-in-law have just had their first child. They were searching for child care in the Vancouver region. A little over a week and a half before they were due to start back to work they found an adequate and proper child care space for my granddaughter. I hear from members of my community all the time about their struggle to find child care for their children, and I now know about it first-hand.
What have the Conservatives done on social programs? They have a sorry and sad record too. They have posted a massive $13 billion surplus, $5 billion more than they expected last year. Yet none of that has been put into social programs. That is a shame on our country. It saddens most Canadians to see their fellow citizens living in poverty when the government could have helped.
I have one final point to make for the official opposition members who have brought forward this hypocritical motion today.
On March 4, the Conservative budget was passed, with the assistance of 18 Liberal women members of Parliament, representing London West, Brampton West, St. Paul's, Oakville, Guelph, Brampton—Springdale, Laval—Les Îles, Vancouver Centre, Mississauga East—Cooksville, Thornhill, Nunavut, Churchill, Sudbury, Beaches—East York, Winnipeg South Centre, Don Valley East, York West and Newmarket—Aurora.