That pain is very real; 129,000 Canadians lost their jobs in January, an unenviable monthly job-loss record. Some of those Canadians were likely the sole breadwinners in their family.

Given that the Prime Minister and his Minister of Finance failed to anticipate the looming economic crisis last fall when they were calling for surpluses for the foreseeable future, it is certainly reasonable that they be held to a high level of accountability. It can also be argued that the spending of this government during the past three years did not demonstrate an adequate level of prudence. It is for this reason that the liberal Party insisted on an amendment to the budget which would provide a number of checkpoints in the coming months. Those checkpoints will in fact constitute confidence motions.

The current budget has some major weaknesses, notably insufficient support for Canadians who have lost their jobs or are on the verge of doing so; steps backwards on employment equity provisions for women; a missed opportunity to make vital investments in the green economy, as well as innovation, science and technology; and no credible plan to get us out of an $85 billion projected deficit over the next five years.

It will be up to the opposition parties to ensure that the government is reminded of these deficiencies and we intend to do so. As the Industry, science and technology critic for my Party, I personally intend to promote the importance of Science, Research and Innovation as a long-term strategy to create the jobs of tomorrow.

Living in a riding with an extremely important university and research hospital presence, and having heard from many eminent Canadian researchers, both from within and from outside the riding, I am particularly concerned with the government’s failure to provide new funding to Genome Canada and the three Research Granting Councils in this Budget. If ever there was a time to demonstrate vision and strong support for our scientists, it is now.

More on this in my next report to you from Ottawa.

• Marc Garneau is the Liberal MP for Westmount — Ville-Marie.