Mr. Speaker, I appreciate your giving me the floor at this particular time. I feel privileged. I am anxious to discuss this government's lack of vision in greater detail after question period-because I will not have time to do so now, unfortunately. I will tell you about this lack of vision in relation to numerous commitments made by the government in its red book regarding the fight against unemployment.
Last fall, the Liberal Party of Canada seemed aware of the reality facing Canadians and emphasized in a very convincing way-and, in fact, succeeded in fooling a few million Canadians, especially in Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces-that there were 1.6 million unemployed people in Canada, a situation which was unacceptable and attributable to the lack of vision, the lack of competence and the lack of political will of the Conservative government.
Now we can see what kind of innovative solutions the government has come up with. It wants to implement an infrastructure program which will create 45,000 temporary jobs, while there are currently 1.6 million people out of work. Such an initiative requires a lot of imagination indeed. It illustrates how this government, which was wise enough to hire good freelance writers at the right time, does not have the wits to devise innovative solutions which would significantly reduce the number of unemployed. I cannot believe that unemployment will significantly drop in the Atlantic provinces with the creation of 45,000 jobs, nor with 15,000 of these new jobs in Quebec where some 800,000 people are out of work. This shows a lack of vision regarding the unemployment issue.
There is a lack of vision but there is also a lack of consistency, considering what is written in the red book regarding the reconversion of companies from military to civilian production. There again, the Liberals had good intentions, but we have not heard anything since regarding this issue, whether in the Throne Speech, in the Budget, or from the Minister of Industry.
Yet, there are concrete examples such as Oerlikon, Paramax and MIL Davie, which has its own conversion strategy. So far, the government has steadfastly refused to get involved and ensure that MIL Davie, among others, which has its own conversion plan, can get federal support with the ferry to the Magdalen Islands and the smart ship which would be used everywhere.