Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'll use my time to sort of summarize maybe what we're feeling on this side, and maybe that explains some of the trains of questioning.
We have this unprecedented situation in which we're actually trying to spend lots of money fast. In the 12 years I've been here, that's completely unprecedented. I was elected in the middle of 1997 when it was all cutbacks and trying to stop spending at all costs. This is completely uncharted territory for a lot of us, and now we have billions of dollars flying out the door with what seems to me to be the flimsiest of scrutiny. It's almost the polar opposite of what we've been taught, in any kind of disciplined way, about oversight.
Rob was speaking in very colourful language. He and I were elected about the same time and went through this. We cut our teeth on cutbacks, really, and tightening the belt, not figuring out a way to have more money flow. And when he was in opposition, he was an outspoken critic of what could be seen as partisan spending.
So here we are, months away from a federal election, and I'm haunted by this image of John Baird in a bunny costume, gallivanting across the country with a goody basket, showering swing ridings with the Conservative government's great largesse, and here we are, the very few MPs on the opposition benches charged with the responsibility of making sure that doesn't happen. And I still don't see the tools to prevent it.