Mr. Speaker, I think the question we had on the order paper tonight was about Parks Canada, but I am always happy to talk about job growth and creation in Canada.
On my colleague's question and point, first, with regard to the EI reforms that our government has made, they have been made with one key principle in mind, and that is the sustainability of the program, to ensure it is there for the future for those who need it.
My colleague spoke a lot about jobs and job creation. It is always a wonderful opportunity to speak about our government's jobs and growth record. I believe the figure, which we can be very proud of, is that our government has seen the creation of over 900,000 net new jobs in the country since we have taken office and since the turn of the economy in the country. That is a record that we can be proud of not only at home but, comparatively speaking, internationally.
Our country is one where we have seen economic growth, month over month, quarter over quarter, slow, steady, predictable growth because of the way our economy has been managed and because of our focus on ensuring prosperity in all industrial sectors.
To be able to speak in the House to ensuring jobs growth is a wonderful thing. It is also timely given the fact, and again because environment was on the order paper and it is a subject I love to speak to, of the Leader of the Opposition's recent trip to the United States.
He spoke today at length in question period about value-added jobs. I wish I would have had the opportunity to stand and ask him what he would say to the value-added workers in the oil sands sector, the manufacturing sector and the finance sector and if he would try to explain to them why he would potentially advocate against energy infrastructure for our country.
We talk about jobs. We talk about employment insurance. To educate the Leader of the Opposition just a touch on how the energy sector works, we need energy infrastructure to get our product to other markets. To lobby against projects so openly, I have to wonder how the members in his party can get up and talk about employment insurance, job creation and all these things when he is lobbying against a key project that would create job growth and prosperity for all the country in an environmentally responsible manner.
Our government has been so focused on asking how we can ensure that our environmental assessment process is robust, how we can ensure that the build out of these projects are environmentally sustainable and how we can ensure that our economy is sustainable long into the future.
The energy sector plays such a key part of that. If we are to talk about employment insurance reform, how can my colleague even bring this up when his leader cannot even make up his mind. He came to my city of Calgary and said that he would not speak against the energy sector and then he did that very thing in Washington the next week.
There needs to be clarity from the NDP on what its job policy is. To me it says that it does not value people in the energy sector and it does not value people who create growth through that sector. This is something the NDP should be a little more clear about.
We were supposed to be talking about Parks Canada tonight according to the order paper. It is always a good opportunity to talk about how our government has actually increased the amount of protected park land in our country by over 50%. It is something we should be cognizant of: jobs, growth and economic prosperity.