Madam Speaker, the member has accused me of fearmongering and making unacceptable statements. I personally do not consider it fearmongering or unacceptable to express the concerns of my constituents in this House.
I am being showered with letters and phone calls from my constituents demanding that this government deny it is going to tax their RRSPs. That is not an irresponsible request; it is a reasonable request from Canadians.
We often joke on this side of the House that question period is properly named because we never get answers. The minister has a responsibility, studies or no studies, to ensure that RRSPs which are the foundation of Canadians' retirement programs are not going to be taxed. It is very important that he does so.
I stand by the statements I made in my speech. I think the member is irresponsible if he does not communicate his constituents' concerns about RRSPs also into this House.
I would like to mention that he also indirectly accused me of fearmongering with respect to the rest of my speech. I would like to make the note that although Bill C-54 is fairly thick and heavy and full of only minor amendments, it does not help whatsoever in reducing this huge deficit problem that we have, $40 billion this year.
Imagine how many hospitals and roads we could build and what we could do to upgrade our armed forces, how much it would contribute to reducing child poverty if we had that $40 billion to spend instead of using it to pay interest on the debt. We could build 12 times as much infrastructure as the red ink book infrastructure program does in one year, 12 times as much in a single year. Vancouver could finally get a freeway capable of carrying its traffic.
We have to do something about the deficit and the debt problem. I stand by every word I made in my speech.