Mr. Speaker, before I make a brief comment and then pose a question to my fellow maritimer, the member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, I want to begin by congratulating him on his win in the byelection. His riding is a neighbouring riding to mine. We meet at the border of Amherst, Nova Scotia and Aulac, New Brunswick. I sincerely congratulate the member on his election and welcome him to this House.
In the throne speech, it would appear that the government's only serious commitment to the environment is the recycling of throne speeches. The government simply reannounced and regurgitated old legislative commitments. There was very little in terms of recalibration, but a great deal in terms of regurgitation.
This government is afraid of being held accountable, and is not interested in strengthening the Canadian democracy. On the contrary, this government is ignoring the very clear expression of the will of this House regarding handing over the documents that our committee on the Afghanistan mission needs to do its very important work.
The member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley spoke of economic policy. He spoke of small business and unemployment in his constituency, which certainly is not dissimilar to my riding of Beauséjour.
I am wondering if the member could explain to us how small businesses in his riding are reacting to the job-killing payroll taxes that the government is imposing in the form of hikes to employment insurance premiums, hikes that have been estimated to eliminate up to 200,000 jobs. If he were serious about helping unemployed people, perhaps he would want to explain how this tax does something other than destroy jobs in his riding.
Finally, I have a very specific question. Could he give us three specific examples of recalibration which were important enough to take a couple of months to hide from Parliament? Could he give us examples of recalibration that are not in fact regurgitation?