Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People are drawing a lot of attention lately to the cost of living. Frustration has spawned a Facebook page, public meetings, and you can’t see the news without hearing the words “high cost of living.” I want to recognize this initiative and respond to it.
The cost of living being too high means living pay cheque to pay cheque, never getting ahead of the bills, holding multiple jobs, and no savings for emergencies or the future. Fifty percent of small community households have an annual income of less than $30,000 and much of their housing is in poor or uninhabitable condition. Even people with greater incomes in lower cost communities are struggling with the high costs of today.
There are two important government responses that can significantly address the high cost of living. First, get rid of poverty. If acted upon, the House call for poverty reduction by integrating services such as child care, education and literacy training, community and individual healing will go a long way in helping both the working poor and easing abject poverty. With success, people will have greater ability to pay bills and get ahead, they will pay more taxes and start more businesses, and they will need less government support, all of which are important contributions to lowering the cost of living.
The second responsibility we have is to address one of the biggest pressures people are pointing to as the cause of their inability to meet their costs: energy bills. Energy costs are part of essentially every aspect of our lives. Fortunately, there are ways that we can provide cheaper energy that will also provide more employment and business opportunities and real environmental benefits. Rather than pursue these in a meaningful way however, government does endless reviews and opaque shifting of costs that ultimately benefits nobody.
In the coming days I will speak in depth to these shortcomings and missed opportunities for friendlier energy and how our energy supply system must be fundamentally revised to achieve meaningful advances in our fight against the high cost of living. Mahsi.
