Mr. Speaker, I think that, in coming to Ottawa, everyone here has forgotten what the real situation is in our country. I think they have even forgotten that, in some areas of this country, there are people who do not have the money to put bread on the table so that their children can go to school.
I have trouble understanding our colleague from the Reform Party who is saying that, by lowering taxes, we will create employment. I am not interested in the statistics, the economic studies and the research papers. These figures are not right. We are interested in what is really going on. What is really going on is that government gave money to companies for technological change, which eliminated 600 or 800 jobs, and companies increased their profits without creating employment.
Canada's banks have made profits in the billions of dollars and they are letting people go, not creating jobs. I still have trouble believing that immediately lowering taxes will put an end to the employment problem in Canada.
Let us not forget that it is not the fault of ordinary people that there are no longer any fish. It is not the fault of Newfoundlanders, of the employees who used to work in fish plants. It is not their fault if they are not working. In a united country, as we are supposed to call it, we are supposed to look out for one another.
In the meantime, I will ask my colleague a question. If the Reform Party were in power, what would their short term solution be for those who have nothing in the house to eat, and who get $38 a week to feed their family? That is where the problem lies. In the short term, a solution must be found to help people in Canada and, in the long term, other solutions must be found to create real jobs that will give our workers some dignity.
I do not believe, and I will never agree, that the people in the Atlantic provinces are lazy. Let us, my friends and colleague, take a quick tour across Canada and look at what is happening in the regions represented by my colleagues.
There were eleven children in my own family. In 1972, not one of us was left in New Brunswick. We had all gone to northern Ontario, Prince George, B.C. or Oshawa, Ontario. We had to.
If we were to take a quick tour across Canada—Hearst, Kapuskasing, White River, Wawa, Marathon, Manitouwadge, Oshawa, Hamilton, St. Catherines, or go to Alberta and B.C.—we would find people from down home who have been forced to move away from their families. Perhaps the Reform Party members have never had to leave their relatives behind in the West, but the rest of us know what it is like not to know one's brothers and sisters. We know what that is all about.
When there is talk today of a united country, it is time for action, not just words. What would the result be, if the Reform Party were in power? We would be in a sorry mess.