Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis in Cariboo—Chilcotin, as there is throughout much of British Columbia.
In my riding unemployment has reached 14.8%. This is unacceptable.
The federal government has tied our lumber manufacturers to a softwood quota agreement with the United States that we cannot get out of. Now it is killing some of our producers who cannot get enough quota.
Now the placer miners are telling me that gun-toting fisheries and oceans officers have been raiding them and threatening to close the miners down because they do not want them on the rivers. What will happen next?
Like so many other issues that this government has tackled over the past five years, the Liberals lack vision to seek long term solutions to serious problems and fail to look at the long term consequences of their knee-jerk reactions before implementing new policies.
My constituents are asking: Where is the vision? Where is the leadership? They are demanding answers now.
Today in Caribou—Chilcotin the unemployment rate is 14.8% and rising. Does the government not care? The facts speak for themselves.