Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and I work together on the veterans affairs committee and he knows very well, as he has been a long time member of this chamber, that when the Conservatives were in opposition they always mentioned the fact that when motions are passed by the House that should express the will of government in its financial statements and in everything else.
The hon. member knows very well that we passed a motion in the House recently that would assist widows, widowers and veterans themselves. In a couple of cases, the VIP, which he knows was promised to Joyce Carter, a lady from St. Peter's, Cape Breton, in a letter written on behalf of the then opposition leader, saying that if the Conservatives formed a government they would immediately bring in the VIP for all widows and widowers of veterans, regardless of the time of death.
That was almost 16 months ago now and we are still waiting. If the government is going to deliberately mislead widows of veterans, who else is it going to mislead in the country? It has easily mislead Atlantic Canada on the accords, for example. It is quite despicable that the leader of our country, in previous opposition times, can have a letter which deliberately misleads a widow of a veteran.
The budget did not even mention the VIP for widows of veterans, even though it was a motion passed in the House.
Does my hon. colleague, who is also on the veterans affairs committee, not find it despicable that a government, with a $14.2 billion surplus, cannot find a couple of hundred million dollars out of that, less than 2% of the total budget, to assist all widows and widowers of veterans who helped serve our country so greatly in its time of need?