Out-of-touch Flaherty update fails Canadians on jobs: Turmel

OTTAWA – New Democrat Leader Nycole Turmel accused Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty today of being out-of-touch with Canadian families even as the country was rocked by massive job loss during the month of October.

“Even as the Finance Minister admitted today that his deficit-reduction plan was way off the mark, he refused to acknowledge the bigger problem – that 72,000 Canadian families have just lost their jobs,” said Turmel. “It’s time for real action on job creation, not more corporate tax cuts that don’t boost job numbers.”

“Mr. Flaherty needs to stop tinkering with five-year figures and start taking substantial action to kick-start job creation. Canadian families want to know when they’re getting back to work, and how they’re going to pay the bills at the end of the month. All this government can offer is long-term forecasts and re-announced half measures without any new job creation strategy.”

While Flaherty announced today that the Conservatives are backing down from their unrealistic deficit targets, the Minister came up empty handed on solutions to address Canada’s rising unemployment. While Turmel welcomed the extension of pre-existing Employment Insurance measures, she stated that this alone isn’t enough to put a dent in Canada’s flagging jobs numbers. And taking more money off of every paycheque in tough times is wrong.

She also underlined this budget update does nothing to address the massive delays in EI claims that unemployed Canadians are suffering through because of Conservative cuts to Service Canada. In a time of a growing jobless rate, that’s wrong.

Opposition Finance Critic Peter Julian added that New Democrats have been calling on the government to introduce a job creation plan, but the Conservatives refuse to act. Instead, they continue to give billions in across-the-board corporate tax cuts with no guarantee a single job will be created.

“The Conservatives’ only economic strategy is more and more tax cuts to their friends in already profitable corporations, with no guarantee that a single job is created. This approach has failed. They should re-invest that money in an immediate job creation plan now, before any more families have to pay the price for Conservative inaction.”