SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24

Sep/17/24 3:00:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there we have it. Conservatives have just confirmed they will cut the programs that Canadian families are relying on, the $10-a-day child care that is saving families thousands of dollars, the national school food program that is ensuring that children are not at school hungry. We heard it here. They plan to cut the supports that Canadian families need.

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Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24

Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

Sep/17/24 5:44:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question about children born abroad and adopted, whose parent passed away, and who were denied citizenship. Why do the Conservatives think that these children, who have already gone through the pain of losing a parent and being born into difficult conditions, should be excluded from the citizenship process?

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Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24

Mr. Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, NDP)

Sep/17/24 6:12:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I found that the question from my Bloc Québécois colleague made a lot of sense, unlike the Conservatives' comments. However, I would like to ask my colleague the following question. If the Citizenship Act is unconstitutional, if the act allows people to lose their citizenship by accident or administrative error, if children are born stateless, why do the Conservatives want to drag their feet and not ensure that this problem is resolved quickly?

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Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Sep/17/24 6:39:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am incredibly appreciative to be here for this particular debate. As we all know, we are the only G7 country that does not have a national school food program. Now, I never like to make this about me, but I have to share. I was one of those parents who could not afford to keep healthy, nutritious food on the table for my children, and I would have loved to have given them healthier options when sending them to school, but I just could not afford it. I became an EA in the school district and worked directly in the schools, and I realized I was not alone. Too many children were showing up to school who were unable to learn effectively. They were having a hard time with relationships. The impacts were just tremendous on children of not having access to the food that they so desperately needed. I then went on to work as a community school coordinator. I applied for programming and funding to get kids the essential programs and food that they needed and saw the difference in the kids when they had a healthy breakfast in the morning and when they had access to a lunch. I went on to become a school board trustee to fight for these school food programs across Canada. Now I am here. I say this because I do not understand why it has taken us so long to get where we are now when children are hungry, and they are even worse off now today than they were before—

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Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24

Mrs. Élisabeth Brière (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

Sep/17/24 7:23:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. However, the announcement indicated that the question would be about ways to help families. I will therefore focus on the topic that was announced. Supporting families and improving their quality of life is one of the government's key priorities. We have made significant investments to make life more affordable, because we believe every Canadian deserves a real and fair chance to succeed. The Canada child benefit helps low- and middle-income families with the cost of raising their children. This benefit, which is indexed to inflation, supports over 3.5 million families and over six million children, putting close to $25 billion tax-free in the hands of families each year. In 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment to create a Canada-wide early learning and child care system, because we knew it would give children the best start in life. Tens of thousands of families are already benefiting from reduced fees. This allows mothers to re-enter the workforce, which in turn increases family incomes. From 2022 until June 30, 2024, families with children under the age of 12 were eligible for the Canada dental benefit. With the new Canadian dental care plan, the Government of Canada continues to help families access the dental care that parents and children need and deserve. There is no question that food insecurity affects many Canadians. No child should go to school on an empty stomach, but the rising price of groceries makes it difficult for many families to afford nutritious food. That is why, as part of budget 2024, we announced a $1-billion investment over five years to create the national school food program. This program will increase access to school meals for up to an additional 400,000 schoolchildren a year and help more Canadian children get a better start each day. It will ensure they can focus on learning, not on being hungry, and it will take some of the pressure off family budgets, helping to make life more affordable. We are also helping to deliver relief at the grocery checkout counter in three ways: first, amending the Competition Act to enhance competition in the grocery sector, to help bring down costs and ensure that Canadians have more choice in where they buy groceries; second, securing commitments from Canada's five largest grocery chains to help stabilize prices; and third, establishing a grocery task force to supervise the big grocers' work and investigate unacceptable grocery sector practices such as shrinkflation. These are great examples of government working for Canadians. Since 2015, we have also enhanced the Canada workers benefit, increased the old age security pension and improved the guaranteed income supplement. Also, the new Canada disability benefit will help working-age Canadians with disabilities. We have made this significant investment because we are committed to investing in people, and our efforts are working. There are close to 1.3 million fewer people in poverty, including approximately 380,000 fewer children, compared to—

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