Statement made on 25 November 2009 by Senator James Cowan
Hon. James S. Cowan (Leader of the Opposition):
Honourable senators, yesterday in Question Period in the other place, the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, when dealing with the issue of child poverty, said this:
. . . The child poverty rate in this country is half what it was under the Liberals.
The data from Statistics Canada that I have seen indicates that when the Liberals came to power in 1993, the pre-tax child poverty rate was 21.3 per cent. By the end of the Liberal time in office, that figure had dropped to 15.8 per cent. The last statistics available from Statistics Canada for 2007 indicate that the rate in that year was 15 per cent.
Where did Minister Finley get her figures, and how does one square that information with the information she gave to the house yesterday?
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