Mr. Speaker, I will start by congratulating our former colleague, Olivia Chow, who fought for years to obtain from this government more substantial investments in public transit.
When we look at recent NDP commitments, it is easy to see that we proposed new investments in public transit. Since 2011, we have been proposing that the rate of taxation for SMEs be reduced from 11% to 9%. We proposed extending the accelerated capital cost allowance for the manufacturing industry. All these measures were proposed by the NDP and are more or less tentatively included in this budget.
Now that the Minister of Finance is implicitly admitting that the Conservative approach has been a failure to date, why does he not look to the social economy measures that the NDP is proposing, such as the establishment of a national child care program with a maximum daily rate of $15 and a $15 minimum wage for employees of federal institutions?
At the end of the day, these measures will help middle-class workers and also stimulate the economy.