Madam Speaker, nobody kids themselves into thinking that by just setting targets and timetables for unemployment the problem is solved, that the work is done.
Surely this is a government that understands the concept of targets and timetables. The very manner in which this government went about tackling the problem of the deficit was to set clear targets, to set timetables, then develop a plan on how it would reduce the deficit and then measure progress toward those targets and timetables. Heaven knows we heard lots of self-congratulation when the finance minister was able to stand yesterday and announce that this year they were bringing in a balanced budget.
All we asked was that the government approach the problem of joblessness, the continuing problem of chronically high unemployment, with the same kind of determination that it has tackled the problem of the deficit. That requires that it set realistic targets, that it set a realistic timetable.
We are not trying to suggest that we have the formula that is guaranteed to succeed. What would be wrong with the government saying that it commits every bit of its might and muscle, all the resources at its disposal, to bringing down unemployment by 1% a year over the duration of its mandate? In other words it would commit to reducing unemployment to 5% by the end of its mandate.
There are some who will say that is overly ambitious. Do we have any way to achieve that? If we look south of the border unemployment in the United States is below 5%. If we look across the ocean at the U.K. it has an unemployment rate below 5%.
We certainly will not see progress in reducing unemployment if the government persists in bringing in budgets without any acknowledgement of the severity and the magnitude of the problem of unemployment and without setting any targets whatsoever for reduction of unemployment.
Most Canadians will be shocked when they learn, as they will, that the government is quite content with the projections for unemployment to remain above 8% until the new millennium. That is not what Canadians have in mind when they want a government that will participate in the rebuilding of Canada.