Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition wants Canadians and Canadian provinces to fight with each other. For example, in his ongoing campaign against resource development, he is blaming the oil sands for the problems in the manufacturing sector. That is ridiculous.
What he does not mention is that the resource sector provides billions of dollars to the Canadian manufacturing sector in machinery, equipment and goods that are required to operate these developments. It is no wonder that Canadian manufacturers and exporters have come out in strong support of our government's resource sector and responsible resource development initiatives.
As Brad Wall, the Premier of Saskatchewan, asked:
If [the leader of the opposition] thinks a strong resource sector is a ‘disease', what is his ‘cure’? Higher resource taxes? NDP needs to explain.
We in this place know that the NDP's cure is to shut down Canada, to live in caves and to stay huddled together for warmth because where the NDP wants to go there are no jobs, no energy, no policies and no Canada.