This is to become an annual feature, though. This is the first go-around. We used to get this from the Liberals too. After the devastating program review in 1995, 1996, and 1997, they began the annual process of trimming about a billion dollars a year in fat, to the point where there was no fat left to be trimmed. Some cuts don't heal. When you get through the fat and into the bone and meat, you're causing grief and anguish above and beyond the fat trimming.
How can this go on? In light of this trend, how can we expect programs like the court challenges or the status of women to survive? We feel persecuted. Those of us who care about these social justice areas feel that we've been singled out and targeted for cutting. Nobody talked about cutting the $1.4 billion that they give to the oil and gas companies in grants. They could have found a billion dollars right there. Why pick these little nickel-and-dime cuts that devastate important programs for low-income people?
I know you can't answer those political questions, and maybe I'm just venting my frustration. I didn't answer it. I'm accusing the government of being motivated more by ideology than by reason, logic, or even efficiency. We feel genuinely punished by this. It's beyond reason and logic.