Mr. Speaker, I cannot disagree with my colleague's comments. The interesting thing, and the minister reiterated it today, is that the margin was 12% for the jobs fund and yet Statistics Canada figures, government figures, show that the figure was 6% in 1999 in her riding, not 12%. The rate of unemployment was 8.4% in 1996. It shows that the rate of unemployment was going down in her riding. It certainly did not meet the 12% requirement of the minister's target level for the program. Her riding took money that should have gone to a more needy riding.
In the House of Commons on February 8th, 2000. See this statement in context.