Mr. Speaker, this government got elected by making Canadians believe that its priority was job creation. However, since the beginning of 1996, the unemployment rate has gone up instead of down, although there was a significant drop in the number of unemployed who said they were seeking employment.
Would the Minister of Finance confirm what was said by economist John Lester of Wood Gundy, who indicated that if the labour force participation rate of Canadians were the same as it was in 1989, the current unemployment rate in this country would be 14 per cent?