Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I very much agree with what the Minister of Finance just said, especially since the NDP has long subscribed to this idea. At the time, we talked about corporate welfare bums, and we are still opposed to the concept. Now, I have a question for the Minister of Finance about fairness.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I thank you for your concern. I plan on proceeding with questions and answers, since from what I gather from the rules, the answer should not go over the time allotted for the question.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, first of all, I would like to thank the Minister of Finance for giving us this opportunity to talk with him. To his surprise, unlike the official opposition, I plan on questioning him about financial matters. Could the Minister of Finance tell us how many jobs have been lost in the manufacturing sector in Canada since January 2006, when his Conservative government took power?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I would be very surprised to find out that neither the minister nor those he works with, including the most senior federal finance officials, had access to these numbers, but I will tell him anyway. Since this government came to power in January 2006, over 300,000 manufacturing sector jobs have been lost, 116,000 of those in Quebec alone.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, instead of being a leader on environmental and climate change issues, the Prime Minister is embarrassing us in Europe, just as the Minister of the Environment did in Bali before the holidays. The Conservatives are always quick to look for an excuse, so they are blaming their own mismanagement on 13 years of Liberal inaction and incompetence.

Health  Mr. Speaker, the British chair and an American member of an international scientific group that is highly knowledgeable about chrysotile asbestos recently wrote to the Minister of Health to object to the fact that their scientific work is being undermined by this government and misrepresented by the Bloc Québécois.

Health  Mr. Speaker, he has had the report for over two months. The authors are appalled that the government is sitting on it. It is worth quoting what they had to say about the Bloc Québécois. They said that the Bloc had grossly misused and misrepresented the report. They said that it was scandalous.

Farmers Compensation and Blue-green Algae Proliferation Prevention Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-546, An Act to provide compensation to farmers and prevent the proliferation of blue-green algae and to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (use of phosphorus). Mr. Speaker, this enactment provides for compensation to any farmer for losses suffered as a result of complying with regulations requiring a 10-metre buffer zone within which farmers are prohibited from farming.

Manufacturing Industry  Mr. Speaker, why is it that our Minister of the Environment can be extremely aggressive on partisan issues, but when it comes to his own portfolio, he kowtows to his cabinet colleagues who are responsible for the economy? Does he understand that his is an economic portfolio? Nowadays, the environment and the economy go hand in hand.

Climate Change Accountability Act  What an introduction, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to speak about Bill C-377. We know from the Interpretation Act and case law that a piece of legislation includes its title, which also helps to explain its objective and scope. When we read the title, we immediately know what topic the legislation covers.

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the damning report by the forensic auditor in the Kanesatake affair says that not only was there never any valid authorization to finance the botched raid, but the government is still concealing documents. The RCMP had said no, the SQ had said no. Yet an official in Ottawa decided that James had to remain as chief.

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, to help the minister decide on the advisability of holding a full public inquiry, I would like to draw his attention to section 6.2.2, which clearly indicates that Indian Affairs was aware of the scope of the police operation that was to take place on January 12, 2004, but did not inform the public safety department.

International Worker's Day  Mr. Speaker, today, May 1, we are celebrating International Workers' Day. We commemorate the great triumphs of workers in Quebec, Canada and around the world. Quebec's labour movement, since its beginnings in Montreal at the start of the 19th century, throughout the struggles of the 1950s and the Quiet Revolution and finally through union-sponsored investment funds, has put workers at the heart of sustainable economic and social development.

Television Industry  Mr. Speaker, earlier, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages informed this House that Remstar's offer had been approved by the court. Is the minister aware that, at the hearing on the future of TQS, the controller, who is appointed by the court, said that the buyers, namely Remstar, had no intention of asking for substantial changes to the licence?

Television Industry  Mr. Speaker, so this is just a private transaction. We are talking about culture, language and information, but we are told this is merely a small private affair. That is shameful. The Liberals said the same thing before CKAC shut down its newsroom. The Liberals did nothing at the time, and the Conservatives are not doing anything now.