Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Mississauga West for a very entertaining presentation. It is always good theatre when he speaks. I think he has the toughest job in the country, trying to gloss over what absolutely has to be the worst public relations disaster imaginable. I admire that he has the courage to stand there and spout that kind of thing.
It was gracious of him to concede that there is definitely a problem with the administration of the programs. What he failed to comment on is that there is a huge problem in the allocation of the programs and who gets the benefits from the particular funds. The transitional jobs fund is the one that most comes to mind.
Statistically I have the third poorest riding in the country. Does the hon. member know how many transitional jobs funds grants we got in our riding? I can tell him. None. Zero, not one red cent, because we were told we did not qualify. With an incidence of poverty of 32% or 33% in the whole riding we did not qualify because of some magic formula that they cooked up so they could allocate it all to their own ridings.
The riding of Edmonton West is where most of the country goes to get a job because there is so much prosperity there. The Minister of Justice is pulling in transitional jobs fund grants: $1.3 million to band trees to prevent Dutch elm disease. There is a meaningful and significant project. We did not get any, not one red cent.
Regarding the administration of the fund, would the member agree that one of the biggest problems is that one cannot hack, cut and slash 30% of the public service and still expect to get the same amount of work done? Would he agree that maybe the Liberals cut too deep when they laid off a third of the public sector? Now they have lost track of the administration of their programs. Could the member explain just what the rules are to qualify for a TJF grant? I would like to know. It just seems to change from day to day. Could he answer those questions?