Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette:

Honourable senators, my question is for the leader of the Government in the Senate.

First, I would like to have my colleague focus on the suggestion that she examine the financial position of a certain U.S. state that served as the inspiration for her government's crime bill, and which today is practically bankrupt and has an unbelievable unemployment rate. I am talking about California.

My question for the leader is the following: the Minister of Finance, Mr. Jim Flaherty, declared yesterday that Canada will avoid a recession despite the fact that the European Union and the United States are facing growing economic chaos. Is this minister, as an actor in the global economy, so naive as to believe that Canada could be unaffected by this new wave of economic turmoil, which, let us not forget, began with a financial crisis?

We should remember that the Conservative government predicted, just before the election, that Canada would be spared by the 2008 crisis. Everything was going well, everything was fine. The day after the election, the government was forced by the opposition parties to provide public funds to Canadian and U.S. companies — we remember the amount was $9 billion just for the automobile industry — in order to minimize job losses and help with economic recovery.

Could the leader explain why the government and the Minister of Finance are stubbornly reducing the role of the state at a time when Canadians most need government protection? Why reject improvements to the financial system, as proposed by France, Germany and even the United States?

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