Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in the adjournment debate on student programs. Last fall—in September— when the Conservative government decided to make drastic cuts to the old summer career placement program, it also decided to hurt several groups and organizations, small and medium size businesses, and, above all, many students who wanted to go back home and work there during the summer.
The Canada summer jobs program set up by the Conservative government was a real fiasco. The government created a fiasco, and then it was forced—as it said—to come back with a second round of funding. Indeed, the Conservative government panicked because of information provided by Liberal members. This reaction of panic clearly demonstrated that the government's managing of the Canada summer jobs programs was totally inadequate. This was an unacceptable situation that we had been condemning for months, only to be ignored by this Conservative government.
The government cannot say it has not been warned of the problems to come. Even though the government has come forward with a second round of funding, that does not necessarily mean work for students. Who is paying the price right now? As I said, not for profit organizations are paying the price, as are our cities, our towns, our small and medium sized businesses, and our students. They are the ones paying the price, not the government. The government has made mistakes that it is unable to admit. Today, people and organizations are paying the price.
Worse yet, a cabinet minister, namely the Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, claims that the problem with the Conservatives' student program is attributable to department officials. It is unacceptable for a minister to blame officials for a problem that the minister and his cabinet colleagues themselves have created.
It is important to remind ourselves of the Conservatives' federal accountability act, designed to address what they considered to be dramatic situations. Let me read this excerpt from the federal accountability action plan, which states: “Under the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, ministers are responsible and accountable to Parliament for all powers vested in them—”.
It is unacceptable for the Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to pin the blame on officials from the Department of Human Resources and Social Development or from Service Canada. The Conservative government is making cuts to student initiatives, adversely affecting not for profit organizations and students. I cannot think of a better way to make sure that our regions empty out and fail to provide work for our students.
In this context, will the Conservative government finally recognize its mistake, its fault, and acknowledge the fiasco it has caused with its so-called summer career placement program? Will it recognize that we Liberals were right after all? Each time I have risen in this House to talk about the summer career placement program, I have done so to sound the alarm, and the government should have listened.
Will the government finally admit its fault and recognize that it should have acted when the concern was raised—not yesterday or last week when it finally reacted in a panic, but when it was told about it, back in September of 2006?