Madam Speaker, I listened attentively to my colleague's speech. Finally, he himself stressed the weakest element in the budget speech and the budget itself.
Today, we are experiencing a completely new situation in that there is economic growth, but not necessarily employment growth. When speaking of restoring hope among Canadians, we have to ask ourselves one question: Does the government have any solution that will give jobs to young people coming on the job market and to workers evicted from the work market by new technologies? Those are two categories of people who, today, cannot find a place on the job market despite the economic growth. Considering the budget's content on this aspect, it is not very promising.
I ask the hon. member: Would it not have been better if the government had sent positive messages by making an asset out of the UI fund surplus? By cutting premiums or in some other fashion, the government could have made this money available instead of using it only to cover the deficit. Is the UI fund's surplus not something that should have been addressed in the budget speech as something that could become a positive instrument?
The second element is: What message are you sending to Quebec regions for example when you make it so that the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs-something that works, that allows capital venture investment of funds provided by workers-is less attractive under the Income Tax Act? That will certainly not help solve the job issue.
The third part of my question is this: How can the federal government simply establish what it calls a technical committee on business taxation, when time and time again for the last two years the official oppsition has been asking for a review of business taxation? After two years and a half in office all the government does is to establish a technical committee. It says that this committee will be made up of economists and taxation experts, but no one will be representing the social view so people can come and ask questions on human resource utilization.
In this society of ours, instead of being evaluated only according to the gross domestic product, why could we not be evaluated also on the way we develop all our human resources? How can we ensure that when 45 or 50-year old workers are laid off because of technical changes, they have an alternative, something to help them start another career. While there was still time before the next election to take concrete measures in favour of job creation why did the federal government not really give priority to the employment issue in this budget?
Why is the government not dealing with current issues?