-that when we started, unemployment was at 11.4 per cent and it is now at 9.3 per cent; that the Canadian economy created 757,000 new jobs during the past three years; that this morning, the International Monetary Fund stated that it expects Canada will have the highest economic growth rate of any G7 country for the year 1997-98; that the IMF expects unemployment to drop in 1997 and 1998 and that if Canadians show the necessary discipline, inflation will not be more than 2 per cent.
I will also tell them that we have been able to reduce short term interest rates by more than 3 per cent, compared with the Americans. We offer better interest rates than the Americans, so that the Quebec government, for instance, can save $600 million on its interest payments.