Mr. Speaker, tax cuts have a role to play, there is no question about it, but when the circumstances are that we have lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario in 2007, another 20,000 jobs since this past February, and last year a 3.4% decline in sales, we have to wonder what the reason is for the finance minister to make such a visceral attack on the province of Ontario.
Why has he started to call the province of Ontario a have not province? Why is he saying that this is the last province anyone would want to invest in? This is not the kind of behaviour we would expect when a province is in jeopardy of having a significant increase in its unemployment.
Could the member explain to the House why the finance minister has attacked the province of Ontario in such a fashion? What is the reason for that? Could it be that he is expecting that there will be a severe economic downturn as a result of high crude prices and the general malaise, the U.S. recession, and that he would like to have the blame put on the provinces rather than where it belongs, on the Government of Canada?