Mr. Speaker, certainly we are very pleased to have the unemployment rate down over one percentage point from a year ago.
There was strong job growth in April especially since it led the decline in the number of unemployed Canadians. The unemployment rate is now at its lowest level in almost seven years.
Over 171,000 new jobs have been created so far in 1998. There have been 543,000 jobs created since December 1996. All of these jobs have been in the private sector.
We will continue to do what we said we would do and that is to make sure that the fundamentals are right. We have eliminated the deficit. We will keep interest rates low to ensure that inflation stays stable and we will continue on that track.