Libby Davies

[Homelessness, October 25th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I just attended an Ottawa luncheon where the minister responsible for homelessness helped to launch a new “just add water” food product for food banks. Food banks deserve all the help they can get, but we cannot build homes just by adding water.

The minister said at the luncheon that she dreams about a day when homelessness will not exist. Feeling sorry will not help. Nice words will not help. When is the government going to end homelessness by simply building good social housing?

[Division No. 5, October 19th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, what is a national children's agenda without a commitment to a national child care program? What is the practicality of a national children's agenda without any commitment or target and real program to end the poverty of children and the families they are part of? What really is the national children's agenda when there is no sign of federal dollars for meeting the basic needs of housing in our society?

These questions are front and centre and remain unanswered after hearing the Prime Minister's response to the so-called national children's agenda. I wanted to get a clear answer and ask the Prime Minister directly if he understands that the so-called children's agenda is worthless unless it includes child care, especially as the Liberal government still has not fulfilled its promise for 150,000 child care spaces made way back in 1993.

What are the answers to these questions involving the credibility and believability of the national children's agenda? All we got were excuses from the Prime Minister saying that the provinces had rejected the offers he made for child care. The Prime Minister is dead wrong. There is nothing for the provinces to reject because they were not offered any serious initiative that could be characterized as a national strategy and plan for an early childhood development program.

Where are we now? Federal New Democrats, the child care advocacy movement, the labour movement and provincial governments that are eager to see the federal government show real leadership want to see the Liberal government get beyond the platitudes of helping kids and get serious now with a national plan for child care.

Quebec is doing it and B.C. is doing it. Why is the Liberal government not moving on this?

Kids cannot wait. New Democrats are saying to the federal government that if it is serious about ending poverty, if it is serious about the health and well-being of Canada's children, if it truly believes that Canada should be the best place to live for all Canadians, then it should end the vicious attack on Canada's poor, start building housing for families who desperately need it, make sure that the child tax benefit goes to all low income families and fulfil its commitments for child care spaces.

It seems like the Liberals are torn between two paths. It is tempted by the lure of tax cuts, peddled by business elites without offering any real help to low and moderate income families. While there are others within the Liberal caucus who know that after years of crushing cuts by their own government Canadians have as a first priority a reinvestment in programs and services that will help families.

I implore the Liberals to not use the provinces as a smokescreen for their own inaction. I know B.C.'s minister responsible for child care, Mr. Moe Sihota, has gone very strongly on the record that he wants a comprehensive national plan for early childhood development and child care.

Please, do not blame the provinces. Just give us a straight answer. Will the federal government implement with the provinces a comprehensive national child care program?

[Homelessness, October 18th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the minister responsible for homelessness if she thinks we will face another winter of deaths on the streets because of a lack of action by her government on housing.

After her cross-country tour Canadians have a right to know what she will recommend in her report and why her report is not public.

After all the fanfare last spring the government now seems intent on clawing back people's expectations.

What are her recommendations and what action will the government take to end homelessness?

[Child Care, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is trying to get off the hook. The fact is that when it comes to kids the government is full of bafflegab. Let us try to get a clear answer.

Does the Prime Minister understand that a so-called children's agenda is worthless unless it includes child care? Will the minister and the Prime Minister remember that children have to be included in a children's agenda? When are we going to see the national child care program? Exactly where are the 150,000 spaces that were promised?

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I guess it is a matter of perspective of where we live and what our daily reality is as to whether or not this is a wonderful country. Do not take it from me. I encourage the hon. member to read reports from organizations appointed by the government, such as the National Council on Welfare and the reports from the United Nations that have clearly condemned the Canadian government for its failure to address the abysmal conditions that aboriginal people live in.

I have gone to reserves. I have gone to Metis communities. I have seen houses where people had no running water or no toilet. I do not think those people believe that they live in a wonderful country. They would like to have the same opportunities that maybe the member has had.

When he says he did not expect the government to care for his children, I do not think any parent expects the government to care for his or her children. What Canadian families want to see are the kinds of community supports, programs and services, such as an early childhood development program and a national child care program, that will assist families in coping in what is increasingly a very difficult environment.

I am frankly surprised to hear the member suggest that somehow we should not being doing that. To deny the reality that there are millions of Canadians who live below the poverty line, as described by Stats Canada, is simply to not deal with the truth of what goes on in our country. Yes, there are people who are doing incredibly well and do not need any help whatsoever. However, there are very major issues of income distribution and of how wealth is distributed.

If the member wants, I will take him to my riding and show him what happens when we leave people at the bottom, when we leave society to market forces and when the Liberal Party listens to the business elites and not to the real crowds. I will show him the evidence and the consequences of what that means on the streets. There are people without shelter and without adequate support. There are kids who are going hungry in school. The evidence is there and it is in every community in the country.

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am almost loath to interrupt the wonderful, enlightened flow of consciousness from the member for Winnipeg—Transcona. He has really hit the nail on the head in addressing the issues in the throne speech that concern us. I am very happy he has agreed to share his time with me so I can provide some feedback from my perspective and the perspective of our party with regard to the throne speech.

I listened earlier to the new Minister of Human Resources Development. We hope to see some significant improvements to EI and the national children's agenda.

Hearing the minister's comments about living in a wonderful country with such tolerance and compassion conjures up the image of Liberals looking up at the blue sky with the clouds rolling by. I think of my own community of East Vancouver which is predominantly a low income community and what people are really facing. I have to say that what I heard in the throne speech, what I heard from the Prime Minister, what I have heard from the new Minister of Human Resources Development in no way comes close to dealing with the realities of what many people in Canada are facing.

Many times we have heard the Prime Minister say how proud he is that Canada has been rated by the United Nations as the number one country in the world in which to live. But let it also be said that the same United Nations has condemned Canada for its failure to live up to international covenants, for its failure to deal with homelessness, to deal with equity and equality, to deal with the growing gap between people who are getting wealthier and people who are getting poorer.

When I listened to the throne speech I wanted to hear on behalf of my constituents some clear realistic objectives and commitments that would see a government prepared to bring in a national children's agenda, to bring in program and income supports that would reverse this downward spiral, this race to the bottom that we are in. Apparently the government does not care about this. I was disappointed by what I heard.

I have received feedback from people in my riding, people who are really hard pressed, parents who are working at more than one job, part time jobs, struggling to find child care with their kids on waiting lists. These people are being threatened because their housing is going to be demolished or 30%, 40%, 50% or in some cases 60% of their income is going toward rent. These are the families I deal with. I know that not just in East Vancouver but in other communities hundreds of thousands of Canadians are facing this reality.

I listened to the Leader of the Opposition and his response to the throne speech and his view of Canada. He has such a narrow definition of what a family is or what a family needs. I look to my own community to see the diversity of single parents who are struggling to make a go of it. They may be on income assistance or working in a low wage job in a service sector and do not have enough money to pay their rent or feed their kids. I heard the Leader of the Opposition with his anti-government message that if we just put a few pennies in our pockets through a tax saving, somehow we will have solutions. We can see that the Reform Party is bankrupt in its ideas in terms of addressing the substantive issues in our society.

When we look at the messages in the throne speech and the unfolding of the so-called national children's agenda we have to question why a national children's agenda exists but there is no child care program. Why does a national children's agenda exist but there is no commitment that the poorest of the poor will have the benefit of the national child tax benefit? Why do we have a national children's agenda that supposedly speaks to the well-being of early childhood development and the well-being of Canadian families but it does not contain any substance to develop affordable housing, the most basic human right for all Canadian families and all people?

We have to be very clear. We cannot accept that a children's agenda will exist without a national child care strategy. For decades numerous groups in this country have advocated for the adoption of an early childhood development program, a national child care program.

When we compare the government's commitments today with what was in the red book in 1993, it seems to me that we are moving further and further away from any kind of program the government is committed to, to actually make child care a reality.

In 1993 the Liberal Party promised 150,000 child care spaces. Where are they? Six years have gone by. Where are those child care spaces? Why are there tens of thousands of kids on waiting lists to get into child care? Less than 10% of kids who need child care have access to the regulated spaces.

The Liberal government has failed on that score. Its national children's agenda is not worth anything more than the paper it is written on unless there is a substantive financial commitment by the government to work with the provinces to produce those child care spaces.

We have some very good models and examples to look at in terms of what has been developed in the province of Quebec. Why are we not sitting down with the province of Quebec? Why are we not sitting down with the other provinces to make those child care spaces a reality?

I will touch on the issue of housing and homelessness. It is ironic that in the throne speech more time was devoted to the issue of endangered species than there was to the issue of people who are dying on our streets because of homelessness, or people who are living in totally inadequate housing.

It is simply appalling that we have had a minister responsible for homelessness who has yet to produce a single unit of housing. It is appalling that in the throne speech there was not one specific commitment to say that the federal government will produce a national housing strategy.

I have a motion that is coming before the House which calls on the government to commit 1% of the federal budget to housing. Where is that commitment from the other side of the House? Where are the specifics? Where are the housing units that need to be developed?

When it comes to other members of society like students, again in the throne speech we heard platitudes and very lofty ideas about access to the Internet and the knowledge based economy. But what about the students who are trying to get through school? What about the students who are suffering from a massive debt load? Has the Liberal government addressed that issue? Not one line in the throne speech has shown any understanding of the very harsh realities facing students who are trying to get through school.

We were hoping to see a commitment to a national grants program, to a tuition freeze and to a recognition that post-secondary education should be accessible to all young people. That would be a real commitment to building our future, but instead we saw again the lofty ideas and the clouds passing by in the sky in terms of the Liberals' ideas of what the future is. It is a future that leaves behind young people. It is a future that leaves behind poor people. It is a future that has abandoned the commitment to end child poverty by the year 2000. It is a future that apparently has left women off the list.

Yes, we have had some announcement about parental leave but what about the eligibility requirements? What are parents meant to do after that one year of leave? Where will the child care spaces be so that they can return to work?

After examining the throne speech and seeing exactly what is and is not there, then I would agree with my colleague for Winnipeg—Transcona that it is empty and vacuous. It is from a government that has failed to address the real priorities of Canadians. It is something that we will continue to take up in the House.

[Speech From The Throne, October 13th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the empty promises, hollow rhetoric and vague commitments in yesterday's throne speech were sweet nothings that Canadians have come to expect from the Liberals. What really cried out in this throne speech were the appalling gaps.

We heard about a children's agenda that does not include children or child care.

We heard a passing reference to homelessness, but nothing about providing affordable housing.

We heard about the knowledge based economy, but nothing about ensuring that all Canadians have access to high quality education.

I would like to say that we at least heard the words “family farm”, but the biggest crisis to hit the prairies since the 1930s was not even mentioned.

If the Liberal government would for one moment stop the din and clatter of vague, meaningless pronouncements about nothing, what would it hear? In the deafening silence that remains it might hear the real priorities of Canadians.

[Child Poverty, June 11th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in 1989 the House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution to end child poverty in the year 2000. As we approach the 10 year anniversary, are we any closer? Are children in poverty any better off?

The answer is a resounding no. Kids are worse off. Families in poverty are worse off and the number of people and the depth of poverty is increasing. What a disgrace. And what an absurdity and insult that the Liberal government speaks about ending child poverty yet every action, program and cutback has taken us in the opposite direction.

There is one sign of hope. The report from the subcommittee on children and youth at risk is raising the issues that need to be addressed and is questioning government policy. As we end this session, I want to thank all the witnesses and the organizations who spoke boldly and plainly about the deficit of social policy in regard to children.

Addressing inequality and growing poverty in a rich country like Canada must be our priority. I look forward to the committee continuing its work.

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, June 10th, 1999]

We do not cave in. In terms of the letter, it is a very nice letter to the minister; but on an issue like this one, or any issue really, we should look at the total breadth of the issue. We should look at the debate that has taken place. It is easy for the member to pull out one letter, a nice personal letter to the minister from someone saying she did a good job.

We could pull out any number of debates, comments, media commentary and discussion around Bill C-55 which tell the member loud and clear that the real judge, the Canadian people who watch this debate and see what is going on, do not hold the same opinion. They do not think the government held tough. They do not think the Canadian government defended our cultural industries.

On balance, I believe that my comments are defensible and credible. I stand by them. We were sold out.

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, June 10th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to say that the NDP is a party that has principles. We stand by them. We have stood by our principles when we were the CCF and now that we are the NDP. We know what we stand for, unlike the Liberals who like to shift around and basically take the direction of their strongest opposition, listen to the Reform Party and go down that road. We are a small group but we are very proud of the fact that we have the courage to defend our principles.