Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour for his opening kind comments and remarks. I look forward to meeting him in our committee and working with him and others to see how we can address the issues that face us. Homelessness, housing and poverty are a matter of concern, particularly in difficult times.
I can assure the member that we will be looking at ways to meet the needs are out there through the employment insurance program, improvements to the universal child care benefit program, the child tax credit and the working income tax benefit.
I also remind the member that we have dedicated more funds to homelessness and bringing people through the transition in the housing initiative than any other government in history. We have just announced that we will ensure that there is funding of $387 million for a period of five years for a total of $1.9 billion to address those two issues alone.
It seems to me if one has a place to stay, a house, a roof over their head, a bed to sleep on, food on their table, they can progress to what they can become.
I am looking forward to working with the member to see what we can do in this area.