Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hamilton for sharing his time with me.
I am pleased to rise and join with the rest of my caucus in support of the motion.
As a member of Parliament from the province of Ontario, I am offended by the finance minister's attacks on the province of Ontario and the hard-working men and women who do their absolute best in the face of daunting economic challenges and growing poverty in our province. These unproductive attacks are damaging not only for our economy, but also the moral of the people of Ontario. These kinds of attacks between national and provincial leaders are not good for our country, for federalism and for the future of our country.
Many times my constituents have asked me why elected leaders at different levels of government cannot get together to solve the very stark problems they face. Whether it is issues around municipal infrastructure, as my colleague previously mentioned, or whether it is issues around job loss, which is so very real to many people in the province of Ontario, my constituents want to know why political leaders cannot get together and solve these economic problems.
Political leaders cannot get together because of the recent unprovoked attacks by the finance minister. His attacks are bad for the economy of Ontario at a particularly difficult point in time. Canada is in the middle of a crisis in the manufacturing sector, and the province of Ontario relies on the manufacturing sector to sustain itself.
Ontario has been the engine of the Canadian economy. In the 19th century we were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water. Our struggle in the 20th century was to diversify, was to become a manufacturing economy. Our predecessors in this place worked hard to bring in policies that would foster economic growth and the manufacturing sector. Here we are in the 21st century and we see many of the fruits of that investment slip away. Plant after plant is announcing closure. Thousands of hard-working people are losing their jobs. Ontario has lost over 64,000 jobs in 2007 alone.
Members on the government side have said that many jobs have been created. People who worked in an industrial workplace expected to have that job all their lives. After two decades, 25, 30 years or more, they have lost those jobs, the benefits, the pensions, everything for which they have worked. It simply does not cut it to offer someone a job at Wal-Mart or some other service sector job for the princely sum of minimum wage. The jobs being created do not meet the calibre of the jobs being lost.
I will not say the finance minister does not understand the fact that there is pressure on the manufacturing sector. However, his solution is simply not working. He says the problem is taxes. His solution is to cut corporate taxes. Over the last five years, the Canadian dollar has appreciated by 60%. A small cut in corporate taxes will not solve the problem. Worse than that, those companies especially hard hit, the ones that are not making any money, cannot even take advantage of a tax cut because they have no profits on which to save taxes.
Clearly corporate tax cuts are not the solution. Key spokespeople from the corporate sector, like Jayson Myers, have said as much, and I hear it time and time again at the industry committee.
It is also not helpful when the Leader of the Opposition says, when the Prime Minister argues that he will make tax cuts, that he would cut corporate taxes faster and further because that spurs on the government to cut corporate taxes. All that does is starve a government of the revenue that is so desperately needed so we can invest in significant programs such as solving the homelessness crisis, or the squeeze on working parents for a national child care program, or our infrastructure, which is badly needed, or to bring in a national minimum wage, which might help some of those people at the lowest end of the income level, or reduce tuition fees, which has caused so much difficulty for young people before they even get a start in life.
When those in the opposition were in power, they cancelled the national minimum wage, cancelled the national housing program. They did not bring in a national child care program. They began the rise in tuition fees. They also made massive corporate tax cuts. Therefore, they have created the groundwork for the problems today.
Also it is not helpful to Canadians when the opposition members vote with the government or when they sit on their hands and allow government budgets to pass, budgets which take Canada in absolutely the wrong direction and do nothing to help the manufacturing sector or the people in Ontario who are facing a real financial squeeze. It is enabling a government that is taking Canada in the wrong direction.
I say this for the Minister of Finance.
Where is the plan to deal with the high dollar? Where is the national buy Canadian procurement policy that most other developed countries use to boost their local products? Where is the plan to balance our trade so we do not export all our good jobs? Where is the green job strategy? Where are we positioning Canada and our economy for the 21st century? Simply, we are not.
This government has neglected the manufacturing sector. Defining requirements for public procurement and ensuring domestic sourcing of procurement is one major way to boost our manufacturing sector, boost our economy, reduce unemployment, and maintain and create good, quality jobs in services, but especially in the manufacturing sector.
One of the most shocking examples of the government's neglect of our manufacturing sector, and I categorize it as free market ideology gone wild, is to take one of our most innovative sectors, which is the space sector, and privatize some the most advanced technology that our country has produced. We are faced today with the situation where that technology is in danger of falling into the hands of the largest American ammunition producers and that the technology, in which Canadians have invested, will go for purposes that most Canadians would not support.
However, in my remaining few seconds I want to express my concern that the government is taking the wrong approach on employment insurance. By creating a crown corporation for EI, the government is ducking its responsibility for public accountability and is continuing the fine tradition of the previous government of taking billions of dollars in premiums paid by workers and employers and using them to pay down the debt rather than providing benefits for those most in need.
I support the motion. We have to start working together in a cooperative way to address the concerns that Ontarians face, not attacking provincial leaders and then standing by while the economy spins downward and spirals into unemployment and neglect.