Mr. Speaker, in 1989 in the House of Commons there was a unanimous vote to end child poverty in 2000. Perhaps the hon. member remembers that pledge, yet after years of surpluses we still have 1.5 million kids living in poverty. In her city of Toronto, approximately one out of three kids is living below the poverty line. The majority of people using food banks like the Daily Bread Food Bank and FoodShare are in fact children.
I heard a long speech about how we need to care about the people who are most vulnerable. I have a question. Why is it, given surplus after surplus during all these years, that there has been no significant investment to lower the rate of child poverty? In her mind, I wonder if this budget seems, like it does for me, to have continued the same tradition of taking all the surplus to pay down debt rather than invest in children.
How would the Liberals have done anything differently? It seems to me that it is the same pattern of taking all the surplus and dealing only with debt rather than investing in children.