We have always been a small group at this end. Nothing changes particularly for us.
Then it changed and now it is Liberals. I suspect that when Brian Mulroney gets up in the morning and reads the newspaper he cannot believe what the Liberals have done. They have done things that he only dreamed of doing. Massive, massive cuts to education. Horrendous cuts to health care. They have almost completely wiped out all the major granting agencies. There have been huge cuts to social programs so that this morning we now have 1.5 million children living in poverty.
Other countries have no children living in poverty because their parents do not live in poverty. Countries such as Norway and Denmark do not have people living in poverty. They have no children waking up in the morning who live in poverty. We have 1.5 million.
We have 400,000 young people who do not even have a job. They should be working today. Since the Liberals took office, 200,000 young people have been added to these rolls. There are 1.5 million people without a job and another million people working at part time jobs. Yet the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister stand up and say that the economy is strong, that things are going well.
Somebody said the other day it is like having the Titanic economy. Remember that two-thirds of all the wealthy first class passengers were rescued and two-thirds of all the people in steerage were locked down below and drowned.
Yes, we have a recovery for bankers and banks, wealthy people, corporations and wealthy families. Things have probably never been better for them. However for the average person things are rough. For the unemployed things are rough.
I just came from a conference this morning sponsored by the Canadian Labour Congress, a special interest group I am told by my Liberal friends. It is interested in labour. What was the name of the conference? Jobs. Do we hear of the government having a three day conference on jobs in this country? No, we do not. The Canadian Labour Congress two blocks from here is having a conference on jobs, trying to find ways and means of getting people back to work.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance stand up here and say “Do not worry. Unemployment is down to eight point some per cent, to just under 9%”. It was at 9% for 87 consecutive months. Are we supposed to be joyous at the fact that it has come down a quarter of a percentage point? This is embarrassing. It is probably immoral that we stand here and accept this immorality of having so many people unemployed.
I want to relate a point that was raised at the conference this morning at the Chateau Laurier sponsored by the Canadian Labour Congress. They talked about a woman who a few months ago had a good job in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She had a condo and a car. She was doing well. Then they experienced layoffs in the business. She lost her car, lost her condo, lost her job and is essentially homeless. She has gone from being a productive citizen with a meaningful job living in a community to being homeless in a few months. That is how close most people are to that status.
I will sit down now because my time is finished. I cannot support this motion. It really fails to deal with the crucial issues confronting our country. Let us hope and pray that when the Minister of Finance stands up here next week on Tuesday afternoon he will have something to say that will actually address these serious problems of unemployment.