The second point has to do with what Mr. Godin said.
It's been interesting sitting on this committee over the last two years because it is a real learning experience to hear from different perspectives from across the country. Certainly on this issue there's a significant difference in perspectives from people across the country. I would just share the experience I have in meeting with people on a very regular basis. You talk about it being tough for a spouse to move across the country and work and then come back and be away, and I agree, I think that would be very difficult. I'm not advocating forcing anybody to move. It's all about choices, the choices we facilitate, and the good of the country.
I would just point out that the common experience for me in terms of meeting constituents is with the employer who's working 16 to 18 hours a day to try to keep his business running because he cannot find anybody--anybody--to work, and his spouse is working with him. The kids suffer from that. They have a choice: their business dies or they work 16 to 18 hours seven days a week, every single day, because they don't have anybody to work. If the business dies, yes, that's a correction, I suppose, in the economy--you could look at it that way--but it's not a correction that I think we want. I think we'd rather have those businesses stay afloat, maintain the employment, and allow them to contribute to the economy.
I'm reluctant to even comment on what Mr. Lessard had to say, because obviously he was totally misrepresenting everything I had to say. I will point out that I was talking more about economic corrections in the big-picture economy when I was talking about money we have to spend. What I would be looking at is revenues, as opposed to money specifically for social programs. If we implement these measures, the long-term effect economically is going to be less government revenue for provincial and federal governments across the country. Those governments are going to have to decide what they spend that money on, but purely, all other things being equal, the impact of this kind of legislation is less revenue for governments across the country.