Thank you to the minister and to Ms. Gillis and Mr. Smith for appearing before us this afternoon.
Minister, I have to say I'm really taken aback by your suggestion that vote 35 was not necessarily money that was voted on for stimulus initiatives. I can clearly tell you that getting the support of the official opposition was plainly based on the fact that the country was in a recession and we needed to do everything we could to try to deal with that recession and the fact that there was so much happening in terms of downsizing and people losing their jobs. Any suggestion that it was anything other than an opportunity to try to put people back to work...it just leaves me puzzled that you would say that here this afternoon.