Mr. Speaker, it goes back to the Conservatives' very ideological stance where business and industry are concerned, which is to let the market decide. If we had decided that was the way to go back in the early 1990s, there would be no Algoma Steel to be bought up by Essar Global and to be looking at further investments in our community and contributing to the economy of northern Ontario. There would be no Spruce Falls in Kapuskasing putting out paper any more.
As a matter of fact, I remember at that time the then leader of the official opposition in Ontario, Mr. Harris, who went on to be the premier of Ontario, saying to let the steel industry go, that it was a buggy whip industry. All of us who lived in Sault Ste. Marie and who lived in northern Ontario knew that those industries were still viable, that people were still out there buying steel and making things out of steel and steel needed to be made somewhere, so why not in our communities? Why not northern Ontario when it comes to manufacturing? Why not the Niagara Peninsula? Why not make things in Hamilton and Welland that we can sell in our domestic market and the world market? An example would be the wonderful job the workers in Windsor do in making cars. They have invested so much time and energy in training and getting the knowledge they need to be the best at what they do.
Here is a government today that has thrown up its arms and said that the market will decide. If the market is to decide on so many of those fronts, as it is, and government does not come to the table and give some leadership, if it does not provide some resources and enter into sectoral strategies, we will be the drawers of water and the hewers of wood as is so often spoken of in those books written about Canadians by people who know nothing about us.