Instead of going after middle- and low-income earners, why did the government not go after those tax shelters of the wealthy? Why did it not tackle the real problems, the problems that Quebecers and Canadians are faced with, which are unemployment, the curse of our time, and underemployment? The government is always talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, but it did not even give an absolute priority on this desirable objective. We would have supported them on that, but there is nothing in this budget, but another repetition of the creation of 45,000 temporary jobs as a result of the urban infrastructures program.
Regarding job creation, we can only condemn the absence of genuine job creation strategies in the budget. Need we remind the Minister of Finance that the anemic economic recovery has had virtually no effect in terms of creating new jobs. For example, Quebec has recovered only 25 per cent of the jobs it lost during the recession, while the recovery rate in the rest of Canada is slightly higher at 40 per cent. As I said, the recovery is anemic everywhere. In Quebec and in Canada, unemployed workers and families struggling to make ends meet will suffer even more as a result of the Finance Minister's budget.
Moreover, I would add that the Minister of Finance was not being completely truthful yesterday in so far as Canadian economic policy is concerned when he stated with a straight face and without encountering any opposition that his government, the Canadian government, was very proud of the fact that since October 26, it had followed through on its election platform as set out in the red book. In referring to monetary policy, he said that his government had set monetary policy right so that it would never again jeopardize economic recovery. The minister is making fun of Quebec and Canadian taxpayers. What a joke!
Last December, I attended a press conference at which the Minister of Finance was accompanied by the new Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mr. Thiessen, who was the principal adviser to and right-hand man of the former governor, John Crow. Mr. Thiessen took this opportunity to unveil his monetary policy. And what was his monetary policy? They have exactly the same monetary policy as the previous administration, with their relentless and dogmatic fight against inflation without paying any attention to this goal they claim to have, namely job creation. Stop kidding the people and stop telling them that, once recovery really gets under way-if and when that happens and if this government does not jeopardize it-the Governor of the Bank of Canada will take, as he did during the first quarter of 1990, drastic measures to bring inflationary pressures under control.
I did not understand the point the minister was making yesterday when he said that this policy was changed to reflect a quantitative target to achieve balance between long-term price stability and short-term job creation requirements.