Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the member opposite as he ran through 13 years of inaction by the Bloc Québécois on the difficulties that the manufacturing sector has experienced. Those are still just words. I waited in vain for some tangible solutions in my colleague’s speech, but I did not hear any. There were a lot of numbers. I would like to offer him three numbers, and then I will have a question to ask him.
In the last economic statement, a 1% cut in the general tax rate for manufacturing firms was announced. We announced that income tax will drop to 15% from 22%. What this means is that measures have been taken to ensure that the environment for Canadian manufacturing firms will be among the most competitive in the world. Income tax rates will be among the lowest in the major industrialized nations.
My question is this. What is the Bloc Québécois proposing to remedy these problems? Where was it for the last 13 years when we witnessed that list of negative statistics for manufacturing firms? When it had a chance to speak out in this House and support tangible, effective measures to support manufacturing firms in Quebec, why did it not support the economic statement, which is designed precisely to provide our firms with a competitive environment?