Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to comment on the steady decline in Canada's unemployment rate. At 8.4% unemployment is at its lowest level in almost eight years.
I am also pleased that much of this new private sector job creation is taking place in my own province of Ontario. Thanks to federal economic policies, interest rates are down and economic activity is up.
Unfortunately the Ontario government has chosen to sacrifice this considerable fiscal dividend by ploughing ahead with an irresponsible 30% across the board tax cut. That means closed hospitals, overwhelming demand at food banks and sky high tuition fees. Ask Ontario's post-secondary students what they think of Mr. Harris' big heart.
Our government eliminated a federal deficit that had climbed to $42 billion. Now that we have a balanced budget, we are cutting income taxes for those who bore the brunt of spending reductions: low and middle income Canadians.
Balanced government policy is what brings unemployment numbers down at a steady pace, not right wing ideology that ignores the everyday lives of low and middle income families.