Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a very broad general question of my hon. colleague from St. Boniface concerning the nature of employment at this time throughout the world. We are aware that the problem affecting Canada and Quebec is not peculiar to ourselves. One has only to look at the rising unemployment levels in virtually all of the usual industrialized countries at the present time to realize that the nature of work is in the process of being totally redefined.
We understand that there is an increasing trend toward robotics and computer assisted design, which means higher production, better products, and fewer and fewer people involved. This is a fundamental problem. We will recall Henry Ford's saying in the early years of this century: "When I start production, I will make sure that my workers earn enough to be able to purchase what I am producing". Today we are doing the very opposite. At the very moment that companies are recording the highest profits, they are laying off the most people, and in the medium term, within ten years or so, there will be a fundamental problem everywhere in the world: no one will be able to afford the products available for sale any more.
My question to the hon. colleague is a general one, therefore. He has kept abreast of this issue since entering the House, and therefore during several mandates now. I would ask if he does not think that the time has come on the international level for countries such as Canada to start redefining the concepts of work, wealth and production?