40th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 116
CONTENTS
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Poverty Motion

Mr. Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I move that the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities be concurred in.

Today we mark the 20th anniversary of the unanimous resolution by Parliament in 1989 to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000. In the motion passed last week by the parliamentary committee I serve on, we honour that anniversary. We note the urgency of action to eliminate poverty.

I believe we honour the mover of that motion, Mr. Broadbent, as well as poverty activists who make a difference in our communities and the MPs who, back then, had the will to want to tackle that daunting challenge. In 1989 we had the collective will, the values and the conviction to do so. What we lacked, and it was our critical omission, was a concrete plan to make it happen.

Why is this so? Canada is ranked close to last in UNICEF and OECD reports on the welfare of children. We spend the least on early childhood education and care. We spend little for families and not much to make sure our children grow up healthy and smart.

We are the only industrialized nation without a national affordable housing strategy. Only one in five children have access to early childhood education and care. Our minimum wage has not gone up much and neither have child tax benefits or funding to support aboriginal children.

We need to collectively recommit to build a Canada that leaves no one behind. Regardless of our politics, I believe there is consensus to do just that. Indeed, for a wide range of social, economic and spiritual principles across the spectrum, there is motivation and reason to do so.

While the barriers are many, I meet members of Parliament in all parties who understand the common sense of giving everyone in their communities equal opportunities to be productive members. People want that. In these tough times in our ridings when a new employment opportunity arises, we also see the enormous lineups of people wanting to work.

Food Banks Canada's HungerCount 2009 notes that even when people find jobs, if those jobs do not pay enough, there is no escape from poverty. One in five food bank users had employment. The Campaign 2000 report notes that four of every ten poor children belong to families in which a parent works.

Let us remember the statistics being released today are drawn from 2007 numbers, that is, numbers from before our recession. With so few covered by EI, with welfare rolls increasing and with the recession recovery slow, it is reasonable to conclude that low-income poverty numbers are higher now and will grow even higher in the next year. We need national leadership.

There are seven provinces starting poverty plans, but they do not have the capacity to move recession victims out of poverty. We cannot fail this time. We know we can make an extraordinary difference in this country for all who are excluded from our communities because they live in poverty.

For two years now, the parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities has undertaken a major study of the federal role in poverty reduction. In the committee's imminent travel west, we will hear from witnesses on the incumbent need for national leadership.

This is about justice, not charity. This is about human rights. We know internationally and in other countries freedom from poverty is a human right. It is not so in Canada.

We are coming to recognize as well the economic arguments, the true cost of poverty and of excluding so many from being productive members of society as well as the savings in the fields of health, education and criminal justice from eliminating poverty.

A report just released in Sault Ste. Marie by the Community Quality Institute assessed the external cost of poverty. It states:
If poverty is reduced, education levels will rise, improving the community's workforce and supporting economic development. With lower poverty and higher education levels will come overall improved health of citizens.

The report notes that the impact of poverty is felt by the entire community.

For our children, for our families, for all, for a lasting legacy to our country, it is time to keep the promise to make Canada poverty-free.

Mr. Ed Komarnicki (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I know the member for Sault Ste. Marie has a keen interest in this area.

Of course he is speaking today about an unfortunate anniversary, one that should make us all pause and reflect that 20 years ago members of the House promised Canadians that they would end child poverty in 11 years, by the year 2000. Twenty years later we are still working toward that laudable goal.

Important steps have been taken and progress has been made. However, I am not suggesting we naively believe that we have solved the problem of child poverty. We know there is much more to be done.

Clearly, none of us should be content until the goal all parliamentarians pledged in 1989 to achieve has been achieved, the elimination of child poverty, but we should not ignore the undeniable progress being made in advancing this objective.

I encourage all parties to step up and do their respective parts to ensure that the vision of Parliament becomes a reality. Certainly it should be obvious to everyone that in order to eliminate child poverty, we must attack poverty in general and poverty within families in particular.

Lifting whole families out of poverty is what is necessary to ensure Canadian children are no longer living in poverty. While governments, federal, provincial, territorial and municipal alike, all have important roles to play, we can accomplish our goal only by working together in all aspects of our society. We cannot simply think that all solutions will come from government and that all good ideas will come from politicians. Not even the most important actions must come necessarily from governments but that is not to say that governments cannot do good work, as we are doing.

We have made progress toward the elimination of child poverty. A good deal of this progress can be traced to good economic performance and to rising incomes in good economic times, as well as to good jobs for more Canadians and hard work by Canadian parents and families.

We can also give credit to the many initiatives we have introduced over the past few years, many of them delivered collaboratively with provincial and territorial governments as well as business and community organizations. It is no coincidence that we have seen gradual but steady progress in reducing the overall low-income rate for children in Canada.

According to Statistics Canada and its low income cut-off measure, which is a relative measure, the incidence of low income among Canadian children has come down from 18.4% in 1996 to 9.5% in 2007. This is a fifty percent reduction in child low income in about a decade. Although there is still more work to do, and we are not where we want to be, we are a far cry from the days when almost one in five children lived in poverty.

We still have more hurdles to clear, to be sure, but our government is continuing to work at moving toward that goal. Our government has taken substantive action in a range of areas to support low-income Canadians and to provide vulnerable Canadian families with a hand up. These actions have produced concrete results by reducing the number of low-income Canadians. Fewer low income families means fewer low-income children.

In Canada's economic action plan we continue to make significant investments through a range of income support, tax relief and targeted support for Canadians. The working income tax benefit was introduced in 2007, commonly referred to as WITB, to make work more rewarding for low and modest income Canadians. The WITB helped over 900,000 low-income Canadians in the first year alone. In budget 2009 our government doubled its investment in the WITB resulting in increased benefits for low-income working Canadians. These improvements are in addition to the Canada employment credit to help working Canadians.

Just yesterday in the National Post Peter Shawn Taylor said:

The Working Income Tax Benefit is arguably the country's most significant housing program because it boosts income for the working poor.

With housing a significant issue, and we are talking about low income, this is another significant way we are working toward our goal.

Our government has also lowered taxes so that low-income Canadians can keep more of their money. The Canadian economic action plan included an increase in the basic personal amount, as well an increase in the upper limits of the two lowest personal income tax brackets. This means that low-income Canadians can earn more money that is not subject to federal tax.

As a result of these measures combined with previous tax cuts, close to one million low-income Canadians will not have to pay federal income taxes anymore.

In addition, we have the universal child care benefit of $100 per month for every child under six years of age. That helps lift some 22,000 families with 57,000 children out of low incomes. We have also enhanced the national child benefit that has been very popular and well received. Together we spend over $13 billion in benefits to help families with children, and that is an impressive record.

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