It was with complete and utter shock that as I watched the House of Commons yesterday (I do have a life its a job thingy), Industry Minister Jim Prentice stood up and stated that the Conservative government says the disappearance of tens of thousands of good paying manufacturing and forestry jobs in Ontario and elsewhere is nothing more than "structural adjustments."
Who the hell do they think they are kidding!!!!!!!
Almost 250,000 workers lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector in the last four years. Many factories, mills and fish plants have closed down for good. According to the Conservative this is a "structural adjustment"?
Hundreds of thousands of people across the country who used to be living the Canadian dream, enjoying a middle-class level of prosperity, have had their realities come crashing down. More than just a little "structural adjustment" Mr. Prentice.
The unprecedented surge in the Canadian dollar from 85 cents US in early 2007 to as high as $1.10 in early November is deeply disturbing in terms of its implications for the health of the economy and the job market. Very rapid exchange rate appreciation is bad news for most enterprises exporting abroad, or competing with US and Asian exporters in the Canadian market. The especially vulnerable manufacturing sector has already lost another 82,000 jobs this year, and is widely expected to cut more jobs and close more operations in 2008. But not to worry Mr. Prentice...its just a freakin "structural adjustment"
Stephen Harper and his team of Federal do-no-gooders had better get a grip on what is happening to working class families across this country. This includes the useless "dirty dozen" MP's here in Saskatchewan where we are down 23% of the jobs we had here in 2003.
Maybe Harper and Prentice aren't aware that Canada has lost 288,300 manufacturing jobs since November 2003. Or that, one in eight of the manufacturing jobs that existed in November 2002 has since disappeared.
Maybe the Conservatives don't care that while these losses were initially concentrated in Ontario and Quebec, they have now spread across Canada.
New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said Prentice should try to tell that to Canadians who have lost their full-time jobs, only to have them replaced by one, two or more part-time jobs making minimum wage.
"This is a structural adjustment where the structure is going to collapse. These are foundations jobs," Layton told reporters later.
"The impact of this is enormous and for the government to simply wave their hand and suggest this is normal and nothing to worry about, I think, is a grave strategic error that I think is going to leave the fundamentals of the Canadian economy significantly weakened," he said
With irresponsible, uninformed statements like Mr. Prentice's, maybe the need for a Federal Election is more important than anyone understood.
The "structural adjustment" required would be to rid ourselves of a Harper led Government and replace them with a Government that actually understood what was happening to Canada!!
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