Madam Speaker, for the benefit of the hon. member I will repeat what I said when I first stood up. I indicated that the raising of this issue was not only timely but of considerable importance and relevance to our underlying success in stature as a nation. If the hon. member would like, I would certainly take the time to provide him with a transcript of what I had said.
With respect to his comments on EI, one only has to remember not too long ago when the Conservative government was here in Ottawa when it did nothing but increase EI premiums, devastate the economy and increase poverty in this country. That government did nothing but have employment insurance premiums going up, unemployment going up and the economy going down. And this hon. member has the audacity to get up and talk about what this government has done in a negative way. January was the seventh consecutive month in which employment increased. There has been an average increase of about 57,000 jobs per month over those seven months.
We all know the issue of poverty is an issue we would like to deal with. Every parliamentarian in this House would like to deal with poverty but most parliamentarians in this House understand that whatever it is we do as a government, we must do it in a measured fashion. On one hand he talks about doing something on the benefit side while on the other hand he talks about ripping seven or eight billion dollars out of the bottom line to deal with his EI premiums because he thinks it is going to create jobs. When I speak to small business people they say “reduce my EI premiums and I will hire as many people as you like”.
Small business is concerned about the relevance of the economy. That means interest rates, a growing economy and growing opportunity which is what this government is providing.