Mr. Speaker, in the midst of a generational youth unemployment crisis, the Prime Minister has a message for young Canadians: to keep sacrificing. After 10 long years of Liberal failure, he is asking young people, the very generation crushed under the weight of his economic mismanagement, to make even more sacrifices.
What more is there left to give? Young Canadians have already sacrificed the dream of home ownership; they have sacrificed with a summer of no jobs, and they have sacrificed at the grocery store with skyrocketing food costs. Now the same out-of-touch Liberal Prime Minister is asking them to dig even deeper to pay for his record-breaking deficits, his anti-growth ideology and his out-of-touch experiments in economic policy. Let us be clear: Young Canadians do not need another lecture from an out-of-touch Goldman Sachs investment banker, the Prime Minister, about sacrifice. They need jobs, homes and a future filled with hope.
Statistics Canada has confirmed what every young Canadian already knows and feels on the ground: The Liberals' economic failure has created a deepening youth unemployment crisis. Let us look at the numbers. In September, youth unemployment climbed from 14.5% to 14.7%, as if it was not bad enough. That is the highest level since 2010, coming out of the great recession, outside the pandemic years. Over 460,000 young Canadians aged 15 to 24 are unemployed today. Nearly 15% are unemployed nationally, and this is climbing.
For students trying to balance school and work, it is even worse: 17% of students cannot find jobs, and it is getting worse—