Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry.
Last week Nortel announced the elimination of 580 positions at its Brampton plant, bringing the total number of jobs lost since 1994 to 1,300. Meanwhile Nortel has continued to expand its global operations, most notably in China, where it will add 3,000 manufacturing jobs over the next three years.
How can the minister justify to Canadians that while he is trying to support job creation in Canada, the government is helping Nortel directly through export programs and indirectly through export credits to China to finance job creation abroad at the expense of Canadian jobs?