Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I have two questions to ask the hon. member who just finished speaking. I am particularly interested in telecommunications. I worked in public policy in that field. I think two aspects of the budget and the budget implementation bill pose a real problem. The first concerns auctions and involves the decision to forget the good we did in the last auction, in 2007—if I remember correctly, it was the AWS spectrum—and to allow set asides, the band frequencies reserved for new entrants so that they can be competitive.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not know where to begin. How nice that the parliamentary secretary thinks he can rewrite history to say that the NDP is going to filibuster or speak out on this. No, the NDP only does that when we have good reason to do so. The NDP opposes not only the provisions of Bill C-38, but also its undemocratic nature and the manner in which it was introduced.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, the member gets it. The government does not. In my speech I mentioned that this is an anti-jobs bill. In fact, the budget itself will directly eliminate 19,000 jobs. If we include the provisions that are not in the budget, but that are consistent with the undermining efforts already started by the government, it is closer to over 30,000 jobs.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, that also raises an interesting question. As everyone probably knows, I am a member of the Standing Committee on Finance. We spent about 50 hours studying those provisions. It was really odd and surreal; some experts talked about employment insurance and then the next expert talked about the Inspector General of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I can do nothing but laugh at that statement. With respect to the budget, the hon. member already knows full well that, for starters, we had eight hours to read it in camera before giving our opinion. Then, we voted on the budget itself, and we are currently voting on the budget implementation bill, which includes a large number of provisions that have nothing to do with the budget.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the hon. member. The official opposition and the third party have combined their efforts to divide this bill up so that we can study its key parts. In the 2009 budget implementation bill, which I believe was 552 pages long, most of the provisions were not fundamental reforms to our public policies.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, before statements by members and question period, I briefly explained why Bill C-38 is antidemocratic. There are several reasons. As I explained, we were given very little time to debate it despite the government's claim that 70 hours of study in committee was plenty of time.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I assume that I will have about three minutes to speak at this point and that I will be able to continue after question period. I rise in the House to speak one last time about Bill C-38, the budget implementation bill, or, as the Conservative government likes to call it, the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct the hon. member; it has been two and a half months since the budget was passed. There is a difference between the budget and the Act to implement certain provisions of the budget. The budget has already been passed. We are now talking about the budget implementation bill.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Kings—Hants for his very fine statement. I know that the people in his riding, in his region, are experiencing much the same thing as the people in my region. In Bill C-38, there is one component that obviously affects employment insurance.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act  Madam Speaker, I arrived in time for the vote, but after you began to put the question. If my vote does not count, I will withdraw it.

Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I have already quoted the hon. member for Madawaska—Restigouche on something else that was problematic. I am not necessarily surprised because this government really seems to think that seasonal workers, regardless of their qualifications, training and efforts, are just lazy and choose to work only a few months to be able to have the rest of the time off.

Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member brings up an excellent point. It is something we have seen over and over again. Among other things, we have seen it on the subject of the Bank Act, which I mentioned, and on the subject of pensions, which he brought up as well. The most telling example is employment insurance.

Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer was clear about the jobs. Using the same model that the government and the Department of Finance used, he estimated that the consequences of the austerity budget tabled by the Conservatives would be the loss of about 40,000 jobs in the public and private sectors over the next two years.

Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, before the break, I was talking about the fact that we saw the bill introduced and the Conservative government's budget as an austerity budget that will have recessionary consequences. The issue of employment insurance, in particular, is close to my heart. I can demonstrate the impact that this bill's provisions will have on employment insurance with a statement made by the member for Madawaska—Restigouche on the airwaves of a radio station in my riding of Rimouski.