Statement made on 17 October 2007 by Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette
Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette (Leader of the Opposition):
Honourable senators, I would like to welcome Senator Brown. We hope to work with him on issues of interest to all Canadians.
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. In response to the Speech from the Throne delivered by the old government — apparently after 20 months in office the nomenclature has changed — I would like to comment on what was not in the Speech from the Throne.
I did not see much on early childhood education programs; I did not see much on fighting child poverty; nor did I see much on affordable housing. However, we saw a GST cut, which, in my opinion, will certainly help the well-off a little more than low income earners, since they do not have any purchasing power.
I would like to know how her government, which seems to be devoid of compassion for the poorest people in our country — according to the latest studies, we currently have more than a million poor children in Canada — will narrow the gap between the wealthy, who will benefit from a GST cut, and the less fortunate, for whom there was nothing in the Speech from the Throne?
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