Statement made on 02 December 2010 by Senator James Cowan
Hon. James S. Cowan (Leader of the Opposition):
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. It has to do with the government stimulus package.
When the government introduced its infrastructure stimulus package, Canadians accepted it because the government said that it would create jobs. We on this side repeatedly urged the government to put in place a tracking system similar to that in the United States so that we and all Canadians could track the success of the program in creating jobs. Your government flatly refused that suggestion. On numerous occasions since, we have asked for progress reports to determine how the job creation process is going.
We now know why the government refused to provide either that tracking system or the progress reports. According to the report issued yesterday by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, this government has failed miserably in the number one objective of job creation. Only one third of respondents said that the stimulus fund had increased employment. One half said it had had no effect and one fifth said that for some reasons the program had actually increased unemployment. In other words, jobs were actually lost because of the government's program.
Today, the government announced an extension of the stimulus program to October 31, as we have been pushing for. This is certainly welcome and we are glad they took our advice; but will the government now, with respect to the extension, put in place the tracking system so that Canadians can judge for themselves the success or failure of the program?
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