The Harper Conservative Government has introduced massive corporate tax cuts.

Their goal, they say, is to make Canada more "competitive." I believe that it is time to address this issue by putting it into a global context.

Of the world's 100 largest economies, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries. Because of this, multinational corporations are progressively increasing their influence over elected governments….

As we advance the corporate agenda consisting of privatization, deregulation and a pull-out of social programs, many Canadians are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. One in six Canadians lives in poverty, and in British Columbia with our "booming economy" one in five children live in poverty and many families are only a few pay cheques away from falling into it.

The cost of rental housing is increasing in our communities and often young families are not able to move here because of this. At the same time, we have no affordable housing strategy in Canada.

Young parents, especially single mothers and fathers, are often not able to find meaningful employment due to the prohibitive cost of child care.

A national affordable child-care program would go a long way to assist them.

According to Statistics Canada, there are approximately 650,000 working poor in our country. Often this is a result of privatization as we have seen in the health sector in our province.

Many people who were earning a half-decent union wage find themselves having to support their families on $10 - 12 per hour. These are people who in many instances must now work 2 or 3 jobs in order to cover the basic necessities of housing, food and clothing.

It is time for our governments, both federal and provincial to take a balanced approach to adequately deal with both taxes and investment in people. Is it fair that big oil corporations that already get a tax break and make record profits, get another tax break?….

Reducing poverty is good for the economy. Statistics have shown that children born and raised in poverty are much more likely than others to commit crimes, to need more health care, and to be less productive in the workforce….

We have to dream big. If others can do it, why can't we?