Such a fine speech, as my hon. colleague said. I did not say so. Even the Reform Party agrees this was a fine speech.
As I was saying, Madam Speaker, the Minister of Finance, who claims to be in favour of job creation, is sending the Bank of Canada signals that directly contradict this government's job creation objectives. He keeps saying to Gordon Thiessen, the governor of the Bank of Canada: “Go ahead. Whenever the economy starts growing too fast and inflationary pressure may develop, use your strong medicine the old way, by raising interest rates”. That is a recipe for jeopardizing economic recovery.
The Bank of Canada monetary policy is rather complex, but it basically boils down to this. As soon as there is an economic recovery and economic growth creates employment, if growth is deemed to be too fast, according to His Excellency the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Gordon Thiessen, he immediately raises interest rates to slow the rate of growth right down, thereby slowing job creation too.
This is the silliest policy Canada has had in years. Three years into a technical recovery, labour market conditions have yet to be restored to their prerecession levels. Participation levels are lower than ever. Our capacity to reduce unemployment—there are currently 1.5 unemployed Canadians—has diminished. Even Gordon Thiessen realized last year that he had perhaps gone a bit too far with interest rates in the last quarter of 1995; that he had perhaps slowed down the rate of job growth a bit too much.
It is unacceptable that there is a lack of jobs, that the rate of unemployment is so high, and that they are holding to an archaic policy of staying below the Bank of Canada's own inflation target. A minimum of 2% inflation was mentioned. Right now, inflation is around 1.7% or 1.8%.
The Bank of Canada forgot the other part of its mandate, which is to see that the money market does not reduce job creation opportunities. They have completely lost sight of this. They are obsessed with inflation. It is cruel to do what they are doing. They are ruining unemployed workers' chances of finding jobs because they are keeping interest rates high during an economic recovery.
This has to change. As the NDP's motion points out, the Minister of Finance must get back on track and give a clear signal to the Bank of Canada.
There is no question of continuing this sort of dogmatic policy, of raising interest rates when they should not be raised. The emphasis should be on using low interest rates to encourage investment, which will then lead to job creation. It is time the Minister of Finance changed course, because we will never bring down the high rate of unemployment we are now facing with a policy as pathetic as the one favoured by the Governor of the Bank of Canada.
There is one aspect of the Minister of Finance's approach to righting the budgetary situation that I forgot to mention just now. I forgot to mention that the Minister of Finance sat with his arms folded for two years. He watched the train go by, revenues fill the coffers of the federal government, because another $23 billion in taxes went into the federal government's coffers, because the Minister of Finance did not index tax tables, because the Minister of Finance told Revenue Canada to reduce all tax credits including tax credits for persons with disabilities.
If you had any idea, and my colleagues can confirm this, of the number of people with disabilities who come to our riding offices and complain that Revenue Canada is after them demanding the return of the tax credit for persons with disabilities that they received in the previous five years. They even go so far as to tell people who are totally unable to pursue normal work activities that they have no disability, that they are not entitled to this credit. This is the government's budget policy, this is the Minister of Finance's budget policy.
I tell you that we too, like our colleagues in the NDP, condemn the federal government for its negative attitude toward employment and toward people who are suffering. It is in fact the government that put them in that situation.