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Finance Minister
Paul Martin said the job cuts announced by Brampton, Ont. -based
Nortel Networks Corp. are “a matter of concern,” but he continued
to express optimism that the Canadian economy will outperform the
U.S. economy this year.
“We are going
to be affected by the U/S. slowdown,” Mr. Martin said on the eve
of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from
the G7 group of leading industrial nations. “The Nortel announcement
is a reflection of falling sales in the United States and that’s
obviously of concern.
“Every single
job loss is very much a matter of concern, whether it’s a job loss
that occurs in high tech company or whether it’s a job loss that
occurs in traditional manufacturing or in the mining industry,”
he said in an interview.
“Go beyond the
numbers,” he continued. “There’s a human factor you have to be very
conscious of.”
Mr. Martin said
that despite the Nortel announcement, Canada continues to benefit
from the fact it has considerably more momentum in it’s economy
than the US. Does, and that income tax cuts have already taken effect
and will have more impact as the year progresses.
The Canadian
economy will do better than the U.S. and that’s the first time in
a long time we’ve been able to say that,’ he said.
“The Canadian
economy is probably the strongest economy at the table,” he said.
“Our position is going to be, “What are the rest of you going to
do to get your domestic demand up?” He added that his priority is
“jobs in Canada.”
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