Mr. Speaker, I share the hon. member's concern for the unemployed in this country. We all do and we are all working as best we can to ensure those people get back to work as soon as possible.
I would, however, ask the hon. member to go back and check her figures. In its last report, Statistics Canada stated that since December 2006 we are still net 200,000 new jobs. There has been job losses, no argument, but let us be true with the facts, especially when we say them in this House.
Without a doubt, Canada is in the midst of a global economic recession. Its impacts are real and it is affecting employment rates throughout Canada and throughout the world, but again this is a global recession, not a made-in-Canada recession.
While Canada, as recognized by the IMF and the OECD, is in the strongest positioned to weather it, we are not immune and we will be affected. As RBC economist, Patricia Croft, noted in a recent CTV News interview, “This is not a made-in-Canada recession...but because we're a small open economy we've been caught up...But I do think there are reasons to be hopeful...there is a great story to tell about Canada in that we may come out of this recession much stronger than our global counterparts”.
Indeed, we are working with our global counterparts on a global solution and, as witnessed at the recent G20 summit, Canada is increasingly being seen as a model for that solution. As President Barack Obama stated in a New York Times Magazine interview:
Canada being a good example...they’ve actually done a good job in managing through what was a pretty risky period in the financial markets.
We also recognize the necessity to protect our Canadian economy right now and that is why we have Canada's economic action plan. This is a real plan that takes real action, a plan that has been endorsed by business leaders, economists, public interests groups, as well as Parliament.
A key component of our plan is immediate and significant tax relief to help Canadians weather this period of economic uncertainty, tax relief that injects $20 billion of stimulus into Canada's economy over this and the next five years, tax cuts that include increasing the amount Canadians can earn tax free, slashing the two lowest personal income tax brackets, doubling the working income tax benefit, increasing tax savings for seniors with an enlargement of the age credit amount, and much more. Tax relief that Canadians welcomed, as the Retail Council of Canada noted:
These tax changes will put money back in the pockets of Canadians, boosting confidence and encouraging spending, which is critical to the retail sector and Canada's overall economic recovery.
Unfortunately, the Liberal leader does not agree with lower taxes. He believes Canadians are not paying enough taxes and that families and seniors need to send more of their hard-earned money to politicians in Ottawa. We disagree. To quote the Liberal leader, “Federal taxes must go up...we will have to raise taxes”. I repeat, Conservatives do not agree with that.