Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Let me begin by congratulating all of the presenters for what I thought were really first-rate, succinct, and compelling presentations. I'd like to begin, since this is the first of many meetings we're going to have, by stating our party's overall view and thrust. The basic fact of the matter is that the fiscal cupboard is bare.
As a member of this committee, I feel not a little bit embarrassed to be inviting members of the public to come and make proposals for making our economy more competitive when the government essentially spent all the money in the last budget. In the last budget, the annual cost was $15 billion--a record high--on matters such as GST cuts, which, every economist would agree, do absolutely nothing to enhance Canada's competitiveness or productivity.
According to the best current estimates by Don Drummond, the amount of money available currently for the rest of the decade is not more than $2 billion per year. The first proposal from the Canadian Legion alone would cost more than $2 billion a year. And this $2 billion is before the government has devoted a penny to the fiscal imbalance. I think most estimates of the cost of a minimal solution to fiscal imbalance are $3 billion to $5 billion per year.
So it's almost fraudulent and almost insulting to invite Canadians to come and make their requests when the government has already blown its budget in unproductive ways. We're inviting you to make great proposals in a situation where there isn't any money. We will get final budget numbers for last year perhaps this week. Instead of $2 billion, it might be $3 billion to $4 billion. We shall see. But the point remains that having blown the budget in an unproductive way, we're now inviting Canadians in good faith to come and propose productive solutions in a fiscal situation where there's little if any room for manoeuvring.