Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. It clearly indicates to the House the clash of ideologies between this party and that party. The ideology of that party as it relates to Atlantic Canada is one of "will the last one leaving please turn off the lights". It is migration out for the Reform Party when it relates to Atlantic Canada.
I welcome the auditor general's recommendations. We have moved on many of them and hope to live up to almost all of them in due course.
In the agency I represent two national reputable firms surveyed 1,150 of the various private sector companies that received financial assistance from ACOA. They told us that 96 per cent of the jobs the firms said they were going to create they did create.
The auditor general surveyed 51 companies and he found that some of the precision, if you will, of the reporting could be improved on, and we will do so.
He also said:
Our findings, while based on a significant portion of the reported jobs created, cannot be used in place of the survey as an estimate of the jobs created by the Agency's clients.