Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with the member for Churchill.
I strongly support the motion put forward by the hon. member for Chambly—Borduas. It is a very important motion. It is also a current matter. We know very well that the Liberal government's record is terrible when it comes to job losses in the country. For instance, in the textile sector, 40,000 jobs were lost in Canada, and almost 10,000 in Quebec. Let us talk about the softwood lumber industry. More than 20,000 jobs were lost in British Columbia, and several thousands more throughout Canada. In the cattle industry, beef for example, we have seen tens of thousands of jobs lost.
When it comes to the number of jobs in Canada, we are talking about a crisis. In fact, the government did almost nothing. It did not establish an employment strategy nor did it try to help those workers who are losing their jobs. That is why the motion is so important. It is about a strategy to help older workers.
The issue is not only the number of jobs lost in Canada in recent years under the Liberal government but also the quality of those jobs. In real terms, Canadian workers as a whole are earning 60¢ less an hour than they did 10 years ago. In order to make both ends meet, they have to work an increased number of hours. Even if salaries have remained stable and have not increased, those workers have seen their hourly wage decrease over the last 10 years under the Liberal government. This is a loss of quality. It is an important issue which we must do something about.
There is all this talk about supporting older workers who lose their jobs, but we must recognize that the present crisis, in terms of quantity and quality of jobs, is generalized.
A few months ago, in December, we had a debate on the measures to be taken in response to the disaster which hit Huntingdon. Members of all parties will recall that several factories had closed down. The federal government did not act until other parties in this House forced it to do something and give answers to those workers. In many cases, those who lost their jobs in Huntingdon were older workers.
I referred earlier to 10,000 jobs lost in Quebec and 40,000 across Canada. There has been very little response. The government's support to the textile and apparel industries in Canada averaged between $200 and $300 per company. Since there are close to 4,000 such companies in Canada, the emergency assistance each of them received came to a few hundred dollars per month.
That is the problem. Considering the crises breaking out in several areas and the related job losses, the government is doing very little. The issue of jobs loss must be considered, but also training. As a matter of fact, training is the key to success in a global economy.
This is the issue that we have had in various industries, crisis after crisis and very little response from the Liberal government to address these various crises in various industries.
We talked about the textile and clothing industry a few moments ago. We have talked about the softwood industry and the loss of over 20,000 jobs in my province of British Columbia. We still have consistent dithering from the government not wanting to change its trade strategy, which is effectively a jobless trade strategy.
While we continue to provide privileged and preferential access to our energy resources in this country, we have done nothing to push forward a Canadian agenda that would allow us to deal with the BSE crisis, the softwood crisis, and these various crises that have led to the loss of jobs across the country.
What has the impact been? We are talking about more children in poverty. We are talking about longer food bank lineups. We are talking about a situation where Canadian families are earning less per hour over the last 10 years. It is 60¢ an hour less in real terms. They are having to work longer weeks to make ends meet.
We also know that the crisis in employment that is taking place in this country affects the quality of jobs. In fact, over the 15 years since the signing of the free trade agreement, it actually created half the number of full time jobs that were created in the 15 years previous. In other words, our trade strategy has been a jobless trade strategy. We have actually created fewer full time jobs. More and more Canadians are working in part time situations, temporary situations, and striving to get through to the end of the month.
Fewer and fewer Canadians, from the Statistics Canada report that came out in January, are working in jobs with pensions. Whereas in most cases, 10 years ago, jobs came with pensions and some income security for people's old age. Now fewer than 40% of jobs in Canada come with pensions or benefits.
We have seen a jobless trade strategy. We have seen massive loss of jobs in many industries and no action from the Liberal government. As a result, we need motions like this from the member for Chambly—Borduas, so that as we lose these jobs with factory closures, at least we have a strategy to help older workers.
It is important to note that some of the most competitive cities in North America are in Canada. They are here because, for example, our universal and public health care system is a major competitive edge for those companies that are based in Canada. I am ashamed to say that the corporate sector, rather than acknowledging that competitive advantage that our public programs like public health care provide, has been pushing constantly and with some echo of response from at least a couple of corners of the House for more corporate tax cuts.
That is not what we need. We do not need another $4.6 billion in corporate tax cuts, even though a couple of parties in the House would certainly like to shovel off the back of a truck as much money as possible to the corporate sector.
We need a national job strategy. We need more research and development. We need more training. That is what the NDP agreement on the budget amendment, that forced investment in training and post-secondary education, achieved.
We need more investment in green economic initiatives. Certainly, our leader, the member for Toronto—Danforth, has been the number one advocate in this country in that regard. We need more value added production. We need more investments in physical and social infrastructure because that is a major source of job creation. We need more sources of capital. We have been calling for a national investment fund.
We need less of the outsourcing for which the Liberal government has been pushing. We heard the Minister of International Trade, a few months ago, saying in the House that he would not shed a tear if companies outsourced more and if there were more lost jobs in this country. It is shameful that he would make such a statement.
We are outsourcing the Canadian flag. When I arrived in Washington for a trade mission, I was given a T-shirt made in Mexico and a lapel pin made in the People's Republic of China. I was told to talk to members of Congress and tell them about good Canadian quality products. It is very difficult when the federal Liberal government does not give us one article made in Canada. How many lost jobs resulted from that lapel pin outsourcing which my colleague, the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay, has decried in the House?
We need less outsourcing and less laissez-faire. We need more investment in Canadians and in training. That is why the members in this corner of the House are fully supportive of the motion. We are fully supportive of the creation of good quality Canadian jobs and we are fully supportive of a national job strategy that leads to better quality jobs, not less quality jobs.
It is important to note, when we talk about better quality jobs in the unionized sector, that studies from the United States have indicated unionized companies have a higher level of productivity, more than 20% higher than unorganized companies. Those workers can feel secure behind a collective agreement and they can work in good quality jobs to contribute to their community and their country.
We support the motion.
