Mr. Speaker, perhaps my hon. colleague is under some misapprehension as to who I am and what I do. I am not the secretary of state for human resources. I am the Ministerof Natural Resources. There is a difference, although I take the
point that perhaps our greatest natural resource in this country is our people. Having said that I will respond to a couple of the comments made by my learned colleague.
In relation to his concern about unemployment insurance as my comments indicated the reforms of this system are ongoing. There will be a far reaching consultative process with Canadians. In the interim however we have targeted those people most in need to ensure that their benefits are increased. Those most in need with modest incomes, with dependents be they children, elderly parents or disabled family members, are going to see their benefits increase to 60 per cent.
In relation to the hon. member's concern about jobs and job creation this government believes the single greatest engine of job creation in this country will be small business.
I reiterate those steps the Minister of Finance and this government have taken to encourage small business to create more jobs. The Minister of Finance offered small business a challenge in his budget. I have no reason to believe that the small businesses will not take that challenge and create tens of thousands of new jobs across this country.