Mr. Speaker, I heard the member mention Wolfgang Schroeter and his successful company in Barrie. Certainly, I would also like to applaud the success that Mr. Schroeter has had since 1976. His company was very innovative. There were 20 to 30 years where he was innovating on fireplaces, and we applaud that. Maybe he could teach the current government something about innovation because it tends to be falling behind.
My question touches more on mid-sized cities such as Barrie.
In 2013, the Conference Board, in its mid-sized cities report, found that almost 50% of mid-sized cities had still not recovered from the recession of 2008–12. Most of these cities have not regenerated the jobs they lost during the recession. This is the 300,000 or more people who are still without a job, the 300,000 fewer people employed than before the recession.
Would the member agree with us to reverse cuts of $5.8 billion to local infrastructure enacted in this last budget? Would he support reversing those cuts and create jobs in our mid-sized cities?