Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance yesterday stated that he no longer believed that the so-called natural rate of unemployment in Canada was as high as 8 per cent. This is a dramatic change for the Liberal government which has repeatedly stated that it would not reduce unemployment below 8 per cent because of the dangers of inflation.
In doing so, the Liberals had attached themselves to the anti-inflationary policies followed by the Bank of Canada which the Liberals had attacked while in opposition. Those policies are responsible for the size of Canada's public debt and the fact that unemployment has remained above 9 per cent since the so-called end of the last recession.
As the election approaches the Liberals want to wash their hands of this terrible record on jobs by disowning the theory of the natural rate of unemployment. But the 1.5 million unemployed Canadians want to see in writing from the Minister of Finance that he will not let the Bank of Canada stand in the way of job creation.