Mr. Francis G. LeBlanc (Cape Breton Highlands-Canso, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Canada-Nova Scotia Labour Market Development agreement announced in Halifax yesterday.

This historic agreement is proof that the Government of Canada is committed to helping unemployed Canadians get back to work.

It is a made in Nova Scotia agreement. The province will assume full responsibility for benefits and employment measures designed to meet the needs of Nova Scotia workers and employers.

The Government of Canada will provide more than $200 million over the next three years for these measures from the employment insurance account.

This agreement is also proof of a new approach to renewing Canadian federalism. It delivers on the Prime Minister's promise to

withdraw from labour market training and negotiate new partnerships with the provinces and territories.

Similar agreements have been signed with Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Manitoba and Quebec. The Government of Canada is continuing to negotiate with other provinces and territories.

In partnership, we will ensure together that the right things are done in our communities to achieve our common goal, getting Canadians back to work.

Mr. Francis G. LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe if you seek it you will find consent for the following:

That all motions at report stage of Bill C-65 be deemed to have been put and a recorded division requested and deferred once debate is completed for each grouping.

Mr. LeBlanc (Cape Breton Highlands-Canso)

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is it is until the next sitting day. Does that make sense to you?

Mr. LeBlanc (Cape Breton Highlands-Canso)

Mr. Speaker, you will have to bear with me. I am following instructions. They have been deemed to have been put and a recorded division requested and deferred once debate is completed for each of the groupings.

Mr. Francis G. LeBlanc (Cape Breton Highlands-Canso, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the leader of the Tory party was in

Nova Scotia trying to resurrect support for a party the voters rightly repudiated in 1993.

He has a tough job ahead of him. The voters in Nova Scotia remember well the legacy of that last Tory government, a government of which he was a part: higher unemployment, higher taxes, government finances out of control, missed deficit targets, scandal after scandal. He hopes Nova Scotians will forget. They will not.

The election has not been called and the Tory platform has already been discredited. Their numbers do not add up. Nova Scotians know that a party fighting for the right wing Reform vote in the rest of Canada is not a party that can be trusted in Atlantic Canada.

The people in Nova Scotia know that the Liberals have delivered good government. We have cleaned up the fiscal mess of the Mulroney years. We have acted to protect and sustain our social programs and we have put the economy on the right track.

We are beginning to see the results with low interest rates, growing consumer confidence, a good climate for growth and jobs.