I respect your previous role as a public sector union leader, but I wish to stress that you're putting words in my mouth right now.
We're at the start of a process. I think you would be more critical of us if I came to this committee saying that we were going to cut $4 billion without consulting with anybody, and that all we could do is show you where the $4 billion is going to be cut. That would be irresponsible and reckless. That is not how our government does things.
We're going through a collaborative exercise. We are asking departments to give us their best advice, within the bounds of our commitment to Canadians. That means not cutting transfer payments to individual Canadians, or to provinces and territories when it comes to health care and other social services. We made that clear during the election campaign. Out of an $80-billion program spending budget, we think we can find $4 billion, 5%, and we think we can do this without recklessly cutting services and programs that Canadians value.