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Industry Minister James Moore has apologized for a controversial remarks he made over the weekend after critics accused him of saying the federal government doesn’t have a role in ending child poverty in Canada.

On Twitter, he initially argued he was taken out of context and that the controversy was “ridiculous.”

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Speaking to Sara Norman of Vancouver radio station News1130, Moore was commenting on a report that found B.C. has the worst rates of child poverty in the country. While he was technically correct to suggest child poverty falls under provincial jurisdiction, his comments were criticized as “dismissive” and Scrooge-like, especially given the Christmas season.

“We’ve never been wealthier as a country than we are right now. Never been wealthier,” the B.C. MP said in the interview. “Certainly, we want to make sure that kids go to school full-bellied, but is that always the government’s job to be there to serve people their breakfast? Empowering families with more power and resources so they can feed their own children, I think is a good thing.