Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has stated that the consultation document being debated for the past few days ago accommodated a need for change. I would like to tell him that we will wait and see how the people react, if they feel there is really a need to cut in our social safety net. Let me give him an example of the impact one of the measures contained in this document will have.
As this is only a consultation document, I will ask him to tell us how he feels more particularly about cuts in established programs, the post-secondary education shared-cost programs between the federal government the provinces. A $300 million cut is contemplated. Cutting transfers in this area will have the following impact on the provinces, which have no more financial resources than the federal government: just for the education system to be maintained, tuition fees will have to be at least doubled.
On the other hand, the same document mentions training objectives, the fact that in today's competitive market, adequate training is essential and we must find a way to target training well, to make sure Canadians are adequately trained. At the
same time, the government pushes for a measure that will result in tuition fees doubling, because we must recognize that these fees will double. I have heard the member give the example of a large family. Does he not believe that this measure will adversely affect access to post-secondary education and thus hinder training in terms of secondary and post-secondary education?