OTTAWA (Staff) – Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien last week promised his Liberal government will spend the last two years of its term promoting job growth, deficit reduction and security.
He called on private employers to hire, rather than lay off workers as the economy begins to pick up.
“Just as we have taken the lead in eliminating the fiscal deficit, you have a responsibility to eliminate the human deficit of unemployment,” ChrŽtien told business people in a Feb. 28 Commons speech.
The previous day in the throne speech that opened a new session of Parliament, the government conceded Canadians are experiencing a crisis of confidence.
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“Canadians are concerned about economic uncertainty, the sustainability of social programs and the unity of the country,” Governor General Romeo LeBlanc read from a speech written by the government.
The answers, according to the government, will be to promote job creation through investment and trade, to continue deficit cutting, to reform the social safety net and to pass on more powers to the provinces in an attempt to settle provincial unrest.
In the Commons, ChrŽtien said the federal government will double its commitment to youth and student job creation this summer.
He called on provincial governments and private employers to make a similar commitment.
At a time when private sector profits are high and interest rates are low, companies continue to lay off thousands of workers.
Appeal for more jobs
“I will be appealing to businesses large and small to invest just one additional percent of their payroll budget into jobs for young Canadians,” said the prime minister. “This would create many tens of thousands of new jobs.”
He promised that unemployment insurance reform will be accomplished by summer, that medicare, public pensions and old age security would be preserved and that Ottawa will keep trying to negotiate a national federal-provincial agreement to create a national sales tax in place of the unpopular Goods and Services Tax.
Reform party caucus chair Deborah Grey chided the government for not promising quick elimination of the deficit and a more clear strategy to battle Quebec separatism.
But she said the Liberals appear to have heard Canadians express their dissatisfaction with past government performance.
“This second speech from the throne is in many ways an admission of failure by the government and a desperate attempt at a jump start before the next election,” she said Feb. 28.
