Mr. Speaker, on Friday, Statistics Canada reported a decline in the unemployment rates for Canada and Quebec. There is, however, a sad truth behind its report, since the decline can be explained, not by an increase in the number of jobs, but by the departure of 38,000 people from the labour market. If the level of unemployment is dropping, it is because the unemployed are giving up trying to break into the job market and are abandoning all new efforts.
My question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. With the lack of job creation measures and with cuts of more than $6 billion to unemployment insurance, does the minister realize that the sole effect of his government's action in the past 18 months is to hide the actual number of unemployed, rather than reduce unemployment?