The answer to your question is no. This is not the way to go because those tax cuts are essentially for the benefit of companies that make profits. The less taxes these companies pay, the more profits they make. Are the profits then reinvested to create jobs? We are now seeing that these businesses are not really doing that.
We say that we have to make a choice. Do we give $1 billion to corporations in tax cuts in order to create roughly 3,000 jobs, based on our calculations? Or do we take this billion and use it to create 16,000 or 17,000 jobs, be they in infrastructure or employment insurance reform? It is clear to us that this billion would be better invested in targeted policies tailored to the current job situation.
I will quickly mention something else. We are wondering whether it is time to implement a new plan in the event of a recession. We believe that there will be a recession and that there are mechanisms that should kick in automatically when a recession starts. A well-known mechanism is employment insurance. Today, we could and we should look at the EI program and take steps to reform it so that it does its job when the recession strikes.
Right now, only 39.6% of the unemployed are entitled to employment insurance. That's a problem.