Mr. Speaker, I rise today to be the purveyor of good news for all Canadians.
According to Statistics Canada the composite leading indicators continue to show a healthy pace for the second consecutive month in February. Nine of the ten indicators rose and the other stayed on a flat line.
That augurs well for the continued growth pattern in our economy. Certain things do turn up and are very important in the broad based growth. A surge of 60,000 new jobs in February gave an added impetus and we are looking more to that impetus going on through March. New manufacturing orders for durable goods showed a 2.7 per cent increase, the highest since 1988, despite the widespread retooling of the auto plants. Several industries reported growth rates in excess of 10 per cent.