Thank you all for being here.
When one of you started, he said that things were getting a little repetitive and that we were probably always hearing the same things. I must tell you that that is so. But personally, I am happy about it. I hope that it will open the eyes of the government and of theMinister of Finance. Such a jolly fellow he is, always saying that things are going well and that there are no problems.
It is the same story with the 22 recommendations made by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology that we talked about earlier. None have been adopted although there has been plenty of time to do so. There was time in the 2007 budget, and there was time in the recent fiscal update. Again, nothing. Two or three weeks ago, the Bloc Québécois presented a motion in the House. It asked the government to intervene. The government voted against it. It seems not to see the urgency in the situation.
Were we on the wrong track when we said that the situation was urgent and that immediate action was needed? We listened to experts—and you all are the experts in this area—who told us that the present situation is in good part a result of the rise of the dollar to 80c and that the worst is yet to come. Are we right to say that action is needed now and that we can wait no longer? Is that correct? Am I wrong in saying that?