Madam Speaker, it is a matter of arithmetic that the latest budget, budget 2011, is a net destroyer of jobs. If we actually look at the numbers in the budget, on the spending side the Conservatives have measures worth $500 million over two years, or only $200 million if we exclude the $300 million given to AECL. So, the measures that they keep boasting about are $200 million to $500 million.
Turn a few pages in the budget and we get to the cuts. What are the cuts over these same two years? Two billion dollars. They are cutting $2 billion and they are adding $200 million to $500 million so, obviously, net, they are destroying more jobs than they are creating.
This is wrong-headed at this time. If we look to what the IMF has said, if we look to what the chief economist of BMO has said, it is not appropriate to destroy jobs at a time when the world economy is likely heading back into a recession.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is, how can she possibly justify budget 2011 which destroys far more jobs than it creates?