Libby Davies

[Poverty, November 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the provinces are not rejecting any child care programs. In fact, recently B.C. wrote to the federal government asking for leadership for a national strategy. Time is running out and more and more Canadians are facing grinding poverty, one of the root causes of which is the lack of affordable housing.

My question is for the homelessness minister. When will the government stop talking about its concern about homelessness and housing and start building a national housing strategy and building housing for Canadians who need it? When will that happen?

[Poverty, November 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday a devastating report by the National Council of Welfare noted that the political landscape is littered with rhetoric about children, broken promises and token efforts that provide very little real help to families.

It has now been 10 years since parliament voted to end child poverty by the year 2000, but in fact half a million more kids live in poverty.

Will the Prime Minister commit to use the budget surplus on real measures to reduce poverty, such as the national child care program?

[Homelessness, November 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we have to wonder what kind of social conscience and sense of morality the government has when it can pander to the Prime Minister's office staff at public expense, at luxury resorts, vacation planning for their boss, when so many Canadians are left out in the cold, freezing and without hope.

I would like to ask the Minister of Finance this, if he cares to listen. What kind of cruel joke is this? Why has the government sunk so low that it can have soft, warm beds for the Prime Minister's office and hard, cold concrete for homeless Canadians? How do you justify that?

[North American Free Trade Agreement, November 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, if there was ever any doubt about how the North American Free Trade Agreement is damaging Canada and destroying our democracy, we have only to look at recent developments in the Sun Belt Corporation case where this corporation is suing B.C. and the federal government for $10 billion because Sun Belt has been stopped from taking B.C. water for super profits in the American marketplace.

Our natural resources are precious and irreplaceable. It becomes clearer and clearer that NAFTA, and what would have happened under the MAI and now what is threatened to happen under the WTO hearings in Seattle, is destructive and undermines our democratically elected government.

Let us be clear that these international trade rules threaten Canadian sovereignty and must be stopped. We need federal legislation to protect our natural resources and we need public intervention and protection from a market ideology that has gone berserk, sacrificing our environment and our human needs for market driven profits.

[Homelessness, October 29th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, concern is not enough. We have had eight months of tours and studies. I have talked to people in different communities across Canada who have told me that even though the minister has said that everything is fine, they say that is absolutely not the case.

I believe Canadians have a right to know what the government is prepared to do to meet the housing needs of Canadians and ensure that people are not freezing to death this winter in Canada. What is the government going to do?

[Homelessness, October 29th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the claim of the minister responsible for homelessness that everything is fine with emergency shelters shows that the minister is in complete denial about the housing crisis.

In her own back yard here in Ottawa and in her own home community of Moncton there is ample evidence of how desperate the situation is.

After 18 months, the homelessness minister seems helpless and hopeless. Who in the government is going to face the reality and deliver on the desperate need for emergency shelters and affordable housing now in Canada for Canadians who need it?

[Homelessness, October 28th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the homelessness minister's claim in question period yesterday that everything was fine with emergency shelters is dead wrong.

Advocates across the country have confirmed to me that we face a desperate shortage of emergency shelters and another winter of death on the streets. I cannot believe that after spending this summer on a cross-country tour the minister is in denial about the extent of Canada's homelessness emergency.

The minister says her staff has been in touch with every community she visited, but the fact is shelters in Toronto and elsewhere in the country are already turning people away, even before winter moves in.

The Liberals have to face reality and take decisive action immediately. We need both a short term emergency solution to prevent death in the streets, and a national housing strategy for long term solutions.

It is a disgrace that despite having more than 100,000 homeless people Canada remains the only industrialized country without a national housing strategy.

[Petitions, October 27th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition in defence of marriage signed by petitioners in my constituency in the lower mainland.

They call on parliament to ensure that marriage as it has always been known and understood in Canada be preserved and protected.

[Bankruptcy And Insolvency Act, October 27th, 1999]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-274, an act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (student Loan).

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present this bill in the House today. Its purpose is to reverse and stop the discrimination facing students who are now required to wait 10 years before they can declare bankruptcy. This new 10 year rule means that unlike other consumers who must wait two years to declare bankruptcy, students must face additional hardship and discrimination. The overwhelming majority of students do everything they can to repay student loans, but when bankruptcy becomes the only option the bill I am presenting today would ensure that students would get a fair deal and would not be discriminated against.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Criminal Code, October 27th, 1999]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-273, an act to amend the Criminal Code (protection of children).

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to reintroduce my bill to repeal section 43 of the criminal code. This is the only section of the criminal code that is permissive in that it condones the use of force toward a child as a means of correction or discipline. The repeal of section 43 would make it clear that the use of physical force as a means of discipline is totally unacceptable and inappropriate for children and should not be sanctioned by law.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)