19 February 2013, Vaughan, Ontario
First of all, thank you, everybody, for coming today.
I’m joined today by a number of people from the small business community and labour in this area, hosted here by the Interior Systems Contractors Association of Ontario, so we appreciate the hospitality and appreciate all of you giving us the gift of your time, because we know you’re all very busy.
Welcome as well to my colleagues, to Minister Julian Fantino, and to local Members of Parliament Paul Calandra and Lois Brown, who’ve also joined us.
This is part of the pre-budget consultations that all members of our government are conducting across the country.
As we prepare the next phase of our Economic Action Plan for 2013, we’re trying to hear what exactly is on people’s minds.
We have, as we all know, significant challenges in front of us.
We remain part of a global economy that is significantly challenged.
Many of our traditional markets, particularly the United States continue to have significant growth employment problems, and at the same time we face, obviously, pretty serious competition from emerging economies.
Through it all Canada has been doing relatively well.
We have created over 900,000 net new jobs since the end of the recession, which is one of the best records in the developed world, but we are aware of the fragility, and we do have to keep our focus going forward.
We want to make the right investments to help our economy continue to grow and create jobs, but at the same time, obviously seeing our deficit come down, and ultimately our budget get balanced.
So that’s why we’re here today.
Appreciate everybody coming, and I look forward to our discussion.
Thanks, everyone.
