Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on a couple of points the hon. member mentioned. I acknowledge that certainly people in Canada want to work and people in Guelph-Wellington indeed want to work. They want jobs. No one wants to be on welfare, although that seems to be somewhat of an industry in the country these days.
The hon. member touched on the fact that the United States, Japan, Germany and one other country spend many more times on worker training than does business in Canada. I do not doubt that statistic for a moment but the fact is that by comparison the cost of doing business in those countries is many times less than it is in Canada.
The fact that probably our businesses are not spending an equal amount of money on training programs is that they cannot afford it. The taxation levels for small and medium sized business in this country are many times higher than what it is in the four countries the hon. member mentioned. The cost of doing business in this country with taxation in all its forms, property taxes, payroll taxes, is many times more than in other countries.
The fact is the other countries simply have more money to spend on training programs. They do not have a $40 billion deficit ratio to GDP that we have in Canada. They do not have a $535 billion debt which when ratioed out to the GDP is almost uncontrollable or we are going to have a terrible time making a dent in it. They do not have the financial problems Canada has.
The problems that Canada has with its financial house is a direct factor in the cost of doing business in this country particularly for small and medium sized business which invariably do not have the advantages the large mega-businesses do. They struggle to a far greater extent. They do not have the money to put into training programs.
There was a time in this country prior to a Liberal government which started this deficit and debt spiral some 25 years ago, when the cost of doing business made Canadian business extremely competitive in the world market. Canadian business was very profitable because we did not have these extreme taxation levels and cost of doing business. Those times are long gone.
Right now the biggest deterrent to training programs in this country is that the businesses simply cannot afford it. If we did not have the deficit and the debt, this country would be in fine shape.