Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Jeanne-Le Ber.
I have looked at the Liberal motion and two points stand out. First, the motion calls on the government to significantly reduce corporate taxes in order to make the economy more competitive. Second, the motion calls for investments in physical infrastructure, new technologies and research and development.
I would like to point out that we are talking about industries and tax reductions. When we talk about industries, these tax reductions apply to all companies, even the oil companies. In my humble opinion and the opinion of some people in my riding, these companies are already making money hand over fist. They do not have the same sort of problems as other companies, and yet they are given tax breaks. I think it is absurd.
This House is aware that in February 2007 the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology released a report containing 22 recommendations. As I said, it was released in February 2007, and the budget was tabled in March 2007. How did the government respond to those 22 recommendations?
I would remind this House that work on the report began in May 2006. I sit on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, and it has been working since then on the issue of industries because of the rising dollar, the increase in oil prices and all the problems facing industry. All the political parties have worked to find solutions to the problems affecting Canadian and Quebec companies and to save them from the impact of emerging countries such as China.
As we know, many people work on a committee. Our committee has at least 15 members, apart from the translators. In all, about 20 people work on this committee.
It took from May to February, nearly a year, to prepare a report containing 22 recommendations. When the budget was brought down in March, the month after these recommendations were made, not one complete recommendation, not even half a recommendation, was adopted. The only recommendation that was adopted in part was the first one, which called for depreciation over five years.
What did the Conservatives do as a good government? They accepted the first recommendation and spread it out over two years. They did not even cut it by half; they cut it by more than half. After working for one year, they took one recommendation and cut it by half. I wonder whether or not the work done in this House is productive? Is the government listening?
Furthermore, this report was adopted by a majority. All political parties agree that these recommendations should be adopted and implemented. But no, none of these recommendations, with the exception of half of one, were retained.
Let us move forward in time to the throne speech. Almost every MP received a copy of the letter from the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition addressed to the Prime Minister. I will read an excerpt from that letter.
We are writing as the representatives of Canada’s leading value-adding industries to acknowledge the initiatives that your government has taken in support of Canadian manufacturing. We now urge you to go further by making manufacturing a priority in the upcoming Speech from the Throne, and implementing on an urgent basis the 22 recommendations unanimously agreed to by all parties in the report on manufacturing competitiveness tabled earlier this year by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology.
Canadian manufacturing industries are in jeopardy. The only party in this House that cannot see that is the Conservative Party. They have no idea. They think they can just let things be and people will work things out. Not so, according to the coalition, which says that we will not get out of this alone and that the government should do something to help. Unfortunately, the government is doing nothing at all to help.
Like their counterparts the world over, Canadian manufacturers have to respond to market globalization. We must not forget that this is about globalization, and I will come back to that. They also have to deal with the emergence of a number of newly industrialized manufacturing powerhouses, such as China, India and Brazil, and with the shortage of skilled labour.
The committee was directed to analyze the entire manufacturing sector, and when it released its report, the Canadian dollar was worth 80¢. Now the dollar is worth $1.03. At the time, everyone thought that the price of gas, at 85¢ per litre, was exorbitant, but now it costs 96¢ per litre, and sometimes as much as $1 or $1.04 per litre.
There is a growing gap between our industries and the emerging nations. Yet our government is doing nothing about it. As my colleague, the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, might say, “zip, zilch, zero”.
This is a strong statement. Members of the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition include Serge Lavoie of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, Bob Elliott of the Canadian Printing Industries Association, Ron Watkins of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, Mark Nantais of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, and Pierre Boucher of the Cement Association of Canada. Over 20 presidents of various associations signed the letter, hoping that the government will not negate their year-long effort to develop these 22 recommendations by following up on just one of them, and then only halfway. I think that the presidents of these associations are smart enough to recognize the work accomplished by the committee. They want the government to implement their recommendations.
Despite job losses in industry, the Conservative government insists that everything is fine, that there is no problem, that there are hundreds of jobs out there. Sure there are hundreds of jobs out there. All along the highway, there are signs saying, “We're hiring”.
Something else to consider, however, is an article published in yesterday's Journal de Montréal. Our current situation is often compared to that of the baby boomers in their day. The article states:
The Institut de la statistique du Québec just published a comprehensive study on the pay and working conditions of young workers aged 15 to 29. Entitled “Réalités des jeunes sur le marché du travail en 2005”, the report methodically details the participation of today's youth in the labour market, the characteristics of their jobs and their working conditions.
The article concludes:
The only problem: although today's youth have more jobs available to them than the baby boomers did in their day, the quality of these jobs is often inferior.
For instance, highly paid jobs in the manufacturing sector, which employed 24.5% of young people in 1976, today represents only 15% of their employment. Conversely, the hotel and restaurant sector employed only 4.6% of young people in 1976 and now provides work for 11.3%.
Is there a difference between the pay in manufacturing jobs and the pay in hospitality jobs? Yes, there is a difference. Indeed, it pays much better to work in the manufacturing sector than in the restaurant sector, by about $7.25 an hour.
If the government wants to do something, in some way, to help not only Canadian industry but especially industry in Quebec, it must stop playing at the peewee level. It must show some backbone. Not only must the government recognize that members have unanimously supported the recommendations, but it must implement them. However, it refuses to do this.
As for the emerging countries, my colleague, the hon. member for—
