Mr. Chair, I listened to the speech given by the minister a few minutes ago. I find that he is out of touch with the current state of the economy.
China has replaced Canada as the leading exporter to the United States. This has resulted in a very significant loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly in Quebec and Ontario.
Under the Conservatives, 35,000 jobs were lost in 2006 and 43,000 in 2007 because the minister ignored the unanimous report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. He spoke earlier about the member for Edmonton—Leduc. I was a member of the industry committee. We presented a unanimous report containing 22 recommendations to help the manufacturing sector and he only implemented half of one of them.
Does the minister realize that because of his laissez-faire approach forestry workers in my riding—I am thinking of Saint-Pamphile, Saint-Just-de-Bretenières, Montmagny and l'Islet—and throughout Quebec and Ontario, feel that they have no government? I will not ask for an apology this evening but I would like to know if he is prepared to change his approach and his focus. He is presently allowing the economies of Quebec, Ontario and Canada to be completely subordinate to China's exports.
Yesterday, it was announced that Canada, for the first time, now has as many jobs in retail sales as in the manufacturing sector. That means that high paying jobs have been replaced by lower paying jobs. Are those the results he wants? I am asking for an answer from the minister. I will be sharing my time with the member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain