Mr. Speaker, I listened to my NDP colleague's comments regarding his motion asking for safeguards to protect the textile industry. There have been massive job losses in this sector. I would like to hear from my colleague on certain issues.
At the time, the Bloc Québécois applied pressure and requested on several occasions that the Liberals implement safeguards. Since then, 50,000 jobs have been lost in the textile sector. We are again exerting pressure on the Conservative Party to establish measures that, for the time being, will protect our industries from the new Chinese competition.
We see that nothing is being done. At present, there is a tendency within the Conservative party to completely liberalize trade without providing any social security for workers, for example by means of an older workers assistance program. We have seen how they slashed social programs, such as literacy initiatives, and all manner of other programs. They want to make it a free-for-all market, without providing any protection.
In committee, certain stakeholders told us that we should simply abandon certain manufacturing sectors and not make any investment in them because jobs will be lost in any event.
I disagree completely with this position because it is not representative of the type of society that we wish to build. I would like to hear from my NDP colleague in this regard.