Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat surprised to hear the hon. member put in doubt our fiscal management. As a matter of fact, just today, in the Edmonton Journal , I read an article about that. The headline reads “Canada dazzles G-8 with its economic performance”. The article states that among the G-8, which includes the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia:
The federal government regularly boasts at the annual summits that it has done more than any other G-8 government in cleaning up its finances, posting eight consecutive budget surpluses.
But Canada's economic performance also stacks up well, according to the comparative analysis released Tuesday by Statistics Canada.
Canada is a leader among the G-8 members in terms of the pace of economic growth and employment this decade and the educational attainment of its workers, it added.
Just to look at job creation, since January 2003 the Canadian economy has created 500,000 new jobs, almost all of them full time.
I was asked about how much new housing there will be. It is very clear and it has been indicated that we have to sit down with municipalities. I know the official opposition does not agree that we should talk to the municipalities, but we have to sit down with them, assess what their needs are and develop whatever the provinces and the municipalities feel we have to. But that is not the way the opposition wants us to work: directly with municipalities.