Mr. Speaker, I have been listening all day to the Liberals say they have created a million jobs. I have a number for my colleagues and I would like them to pay attention to it.
This past year alone, the deficit was $20 billion, and because the world economy is doing so well, there has been a $20 billion increase in income. That is $40 billion. If the Liberals had decided to create jobs, this year alone they could have paid one million Canadians to sit at home and do absolutely nothing. They could have given each and every one of them $40,000 with the amount of debt the government is going into.
Right now, there is nothing in the budget to help with our competitiveness and productivity. The scary thing is that in my community and in those like mine that depend on manufacturing, we have to get more competitive.
Is the government going to choose deficit jobs that are created due to government deficit and spending, which do not really add anything to our productivity, or is it going to do something serious to help manufacturing jobs in my community?