I'm going to just add two words. I hate wasting time and being repetitive. I have to be totally honest, but I think everybody has made their case.
If anybody who picked up the National Post this morning and looked at the financial section wants to deny that we're going to be walking ourselves into a recession.... We'd better be careful. This whole issue that Mr. Lessard is raising and that we've been raising is flagging those concerns, the fear about where we're going.
Yes, the economy is still doing very well, and that is for a lot of reasons, but we're not going to escape it when the U.S. is being as affected as it is. The first people who are seeing that are those in the forestry and manufacturing sectors. That's why we continue to raise this issue. I support the intent of Mr. Lessard's motion and know that he cares passionately about this. As a government, we need to be ahead of the curve, not behind the curve.
I think the employability study is exactly what that's all about. The poverty study is trying to get out there. The fact is, though, the recession is probably heading our way faster than any results we'll have from either one of these studies, but at least it would lay out where we need to go and how we have to deal with things.
I believe we are here to help people, and that's the role of government--not to have the laissez-faire, “I don't give a damn” attitude. I think our job and a lot of what is being done in that employability study and being done here is good work. But it is 12 minutes after 10, and I don't think we're going to get anything done on that today, so let's see if we can't move this along and do the right thing for Canadians.
I can't support Mr. Lessard's motion in its current form. I don't like being specific about amounts. I think it's the intent and the direction to tell the government that we have some serious issues, so let's do some more work, and let's be proactive in trying to deal with this. You can't send 55-year-old or 60-year-old men or women out to the west, because a lot of those jobs just aren't going to be for them. But we do need to find some way of dealing with a very difficult area, which is what the employability study ultimately is going to help with.
So if we could just get on with it, I think it would be a good idea.