When I first ran for office back in 2000, one of the dominant issues in that election campaign was the issue of the brain drain. I ran for office and was elected at the age of 24. One of the reasons I continue to run for office and continue to want to serve as a member of Parliament is to frankly work very strongly on competitiveness and to pay down our debt.
We cut less than one half of 1% of the federal government's annual spending; that's it, less than one half of 1%.
Navdeep Bains asked where the cuts are coming from. For example, we cut $20 million that was going to aquaculture, I believe, in the province of Nova Scotia. There was $20 million allocated and never spent. It was just sitting there.
We've decided in an ideological way, as Madam Thibault would say, to say that's frankly stupid. If the money is allocated but not spent, let's take the money and give it back to Canadian taxpayers in the form of tax relief. Better yet, in my judgment, tell my generation that you're not going to bankrupt the future by saddling them with debt from broken promises, which were never fulfilled, by politicians they've never met.
I think paying down the debt is critically important to this country and critically important to our future. I think the “boy who cried wolf” routine of the federal government in cutting less than one half of 1% of the federal budget to pay down the debt, so that young Canadians have opportunities and are not saddled by massive taxation with one-third of tax dollars going to pay down the debt, is responsible fiscal management. I think people who say that cutting less than one half of 1% of the federal budget is fiscally irresponsible are utterly out of touch with Canadians.