William Stevenson

Mr. Speaker, come October, Trevor, from my hometown of Carstairs, will be out of a job. Trevor has worked for Kaytec for 26 years. He was recently given a layoff notice because this siding company is closing shop. Slow housing starts and tariffs mean that the work simply is not there, and Trevor is not alone. I am hearing from Canadians from coast to coast to coast who are worried about how they will pay their bills, put food on the table and fill up their tanks. Our economy is struggling, our construction sector is hurting and Canadians are paying the price. The Liberals are out of touch, and after more than a decade of promises to build homes, Canadians are still facing housing shortages while builders are facing mounting Liberal red tape. The Liberals must stop making excuses and start acting. When will the Liberals step aside, adopt our Conservative plan and give Canadians the relief they need?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciated my colleague's remarks when she said how good this measure is. Earlier today, the finance minister said that when they took it off for a while, they saw immediate results and it was benefiting the economy. Can you tell me why they would not want to have long-lasting results and eliminate this issue altogether going forward?

Mr. Speaker, I am a little confused by the NDP member's comments about rounding the math. I do not want to criticize him for going off topic so much, because I will probably do a bit of that in three hours when I have to speak, but in some of his comments, he said that taking this tax off would somehow subsidize the oil companies. I do not see how he can say that when it is going to help take taxes off the consumer at the pump. Could he explain how he rounds that math?

Mr. Speaker, could my hon. colleague comment on whether he thinks that if we actually followed the Conservative plan and reduced all of the taxes it would actually benefit the citizens of Canada far more than the 25¢ a litre, so they could afford to get out, go to work and buy their groceries? Does the member think that would be better for the overall economy than this half-measure that the government is proposing?

Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the hon. member's statement, and I agreed with everything he had to say there. My question to him would be this. Does he think it would be better if the Liberals actually had a long-term plan rather than making short-term, interim adjustments and things that are not going to necessarily last for the economy and for Canadian citizens?