Mr. Speaker, since the current government came into office, a disturbing trend has emerged in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean: jobs in the federal public service have become increasingly threatened.
I would like to give a few examples: the closure of the post offices in Port-Alfred and Jonquière; the attempt to close the Chicoutimi-Nord post office; the relocation of the Service Canada and Passport Canada offices in Jonquière; the closure of the Canada Revenue Agency counter in Chicoutimi; the contracting out of the Jonquière tax centre archives to private companies outside the region; the outsourcing of file processing for Canada Summer Jobs; the massive restructuring of jobs at National Defence; and the threat to reduce funding for the Aluminum Technology Centre.
What these examples have in common is that federal public service jobs in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean are being threatened.
To make the government aware of this problem, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and seven other ministers, calling on them to stop making cuts to the local services that people rely on.
I urge my colleagues to follow suit and seek firm commitments from the federal government on public service jobs.