The Economy  Mr. Speaker, it is sad. Canadians are struggling with lost jobs and the Conservatives are struggling with bogus job numbers. We have seen, under this government, that the jobs that are created are low wage jobs. One in five Canadian men and one in three Canadian women now make less than two-thirds of the average wage, and the jobs they get pay $10,000 less than the jobs the Conservatives lost.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, the number one priority for Canadian families is jobs and that out-of-touch government is failing these families badly. Last month we learned that in a single month 72,000 full-time jobs vanished under Conservative mismanagement, 72,000 families lost a breadwinner.

Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord. He does a very good job in the House, which I admire a lot. He has done a lot of work, even though he has only been in the House for a few months. He does an excellent job. I wanted to make sure that I complimented him.

Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Standing Committee on Finance for her question. She hurt my feelings somewhat when she said that we were not telling the truth. I will have to quote from the Conservative platform. Unfortunately, we often see—I am speaking in general terms and not about the member in particular—that the Conservatives in the House do not do their homework and do not read the bills.

Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  moved: That Bill C-13 be amended by deleting Clause 162. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the issue of amendments to Bill C-13. It must be said that, by proposing an amendment today to eliminate clause 162, we want to hold the government to the promise it made during the last election.

Copyright Modernization Act  Madam Speaker, the riding of Burnaby—New Westminster is one of the ridings where we are concerned about the bill that the government has brought forward, Bill C-11, which was supposed to be a modernization of copyright. We on this side of the House, as a number of our very eloquent speakers have said, are fully in support of modernization in copyright law.

Copyright Modernization Act  We heard earlier, Madam Speaker, from a Conservative member of Parliament, a very intelligent person, who denied that what we all know to be in the bill was in the bill. I want to read page 23 of the bill, clause 30.01(5), which states, “the student shall destroy the reproduction”, that is the textbook, “within 30 days after the day on which the students who are enrolled in the course to which the lesson relates have received their final course evaluations”.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, 72,000 Canadians lost a full-time job last month. The Minister of Finance reacted by increasing employment insurance premiums. Families are unable to pay their bills now. It is not reasonable or smart to eat into the paycheques of workers in the middle of an economic crisis while lowering the taxes of large corporations.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, it looks like the Conservatives have not even seen the most recent job figures: 72,000 full-time jobs evaporated last month because of Conservative inaction. Also, they have blown their own deficit forecast yet again. The government has no plans to create jobs. It sounds an awful lot like a repeat of 2008 to me.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, Europe has been rocked by the threat of an economic disaster that could have significant repercussions in countries everywhere, including Canada. Canadians are afraid of losing their jobs, a record number of families are turning to food banks and there are record levels of inequality.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that slow growth means fewer jobs for Canadians. Yesterday, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said we should expect another 100,000 Canadians to lose their jobs next year. The Governor of the Bank of Canada said that the economy is slowing. These are individuals with more credibility than the government has.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, let us talk about mistakes. From May 2008 to today, the Conservatives have created barely 250,000 jobs in this country. It is not the numbers they advance, not the bogus mistakes that they put forward. Before the Conservatives start to celebrate, the reality is that over the same period of time, the labour market grew by 450,000 jobs.

Fair Representation Act  Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member had been to Britain, he would see that its House of Commons is a smaller House with twice the number of members. The House of Commons in Britain has simply done away with desks. We can sit on benches. We can vote from benches. We can speak adequately on behalf of our constituents, but the most important issue is representing an advocacy on behalf of our constituents.

Fair Representation Act  Mr. Speaker, I think there are two parts to what the hon. member is asking. First is the issue of seats in the House. Can we keep adding members to the House of Commons? I would like to say that in other parliaments on this globe there are no seats, there are benches. As I have mentioned earlier, the important work that members of Parliament do is not so much the speaking.

Fair Representation Act  Mr. Speaker, this party takes no lessons from Conservative members who have not, since they were elected, stood up on behalf of their constituents a single time. We have seen with the Canadian Wheat Board that a promise was made to consult with farmers across western Canada and the Conservatives broke that promise cruelly after their election.