Candice Bergen

[Poverty, November 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, since 2006, we have lifted over 225,000 children out of poverty. In fact, UNICEF recently reported that during the height of the recession, we lifted over 180,000 children out of poverty.

How did we do that? It was through our tax measures and our benefits for families. Specifically cited was the universal tax benefit, which we are increasing and expanding to help every single family in Canada with children.

I would expect the opposition to support that so that we can continue to help children who are experiencing poverty.

[Child Care, November 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts. We have increased transfers to the provinces by 50%. They have created over 175,000 more child care spaces, which is in their jurisdiction.

Here is what else we are doing. Every single parent in Canada with children under the age of 18 will receive a benefit from our universal child care benefit as well as our expanded family tax credit.

We believe that parents know what is best for their children. We believe it is not a party or an ideology; it is mom and dad. That is who we trust.

[Social Development, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is right. This is great news. During the recession, under our government's low-tax incentives and with support that goes directly to families, we have been able to pull 180,000 children out of poverty. Why is that? What UNICEF said is it is because of things such as our universal child care benefit and our tax incentives.

Under our Prime Minister and our government, we will continue to put money back into the pockets of hard-working families.

[Housing, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is completely false. In fact, under our homelessness partnering strategy, we are working with community entities in each specific community. They look at their area and they look to see what needs are required.

I would encourage that member to familiarize himself with our homelessness partnering strategy and our focus on Housing First. The report on the state of homelessness in Canada report said, “The federal implementation of Housing First is easily the most important development in homeless services in Canada this year....”

[Housing, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, together with our homelessness partnering strategy, we also are investing in affordable housing with the provinces. With our partners, we have helped almost one million individuals and families with affordable housing.

We know that the NDP wants to create big, bureaucratic Ottawa programs to increase taxes on Canadians. We are going to make smart investments. We are going to work together with provinces and municipalities. We will address these issues not with big programs but smart investments.

[Housing, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government renewed our homelessness partnering strategy with a focus on Housing First, which is an evidence-based model that takes those who are chronically homeless out of this situation.

Experts across the country have lauded our approach. In fact, the most recent report on homelessness said that the federal government's shift to focus on Housing First is a transformational change to Canada's response to homelessness.

We will continue to use evidence-based facts. The NDP unfortunately opposes that approach.

[Social Development, October 28th, 2014]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, the UNICEF report today showed that Canada's child poverty rate actually decreased during the recession years, pulling 180,000 children out of poverty. UNICEF's president said that Canada had done better than most western countries because of the low-tax incentives that we provided families and also the programs like our universal child care benefit.

We are very proud and grateful for these results. Under our Conservative government, we have seen child poverty reduced to an all-time low. We will continue to take action to protect Canada's most vulnerable.

[Employment, October 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are not just looking but moving forward on ways to improve our labour market information.

There are other things we are doing. We have made strong reforms to our temporary foreign worker program so we can ensure Canadians have first crack at the jobs that are available. We have also introduced the Canada job grant so employers are linked directly with skills training for jobs that are available. We recognize there are gaps in certain regions in the country in regard to labour skills and labour needs.

We are working on the whole sector in terms of labour market information and addressing those labour market needs.

[Employment, October 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government recognizes the need for better labour market information. We are addressing that. We have launched two comprehensive new surveys for labour market information, a quarterly job vacancy survey and an annual national wage report.

We are listening to the experts. We are ensuring that we have accurate labour market information.

[Housing, October 20th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, this government has made unprecedented investments for the most vulnerable who are in need of housing, whether it is our homelessness partnering strategy with the focus on housing first, or our investment in affordable housing whereby we are combining and partnering with the provinces in terms of social housing and making sure that adequate housing is available.

While the NDP and the Liberals want to create big government programs, raise taxes, and vote against every good investment we make, we will continue to work with the provinces and get results for Canadians.