The member across suggested a number of ways he thinks we can do it. Let me enumerate some of them. He talked about the fact that he wants to eliminate day care. To him daycare is not important. Let us sweep it off the table. That is not of any interest to anybody.
According to the member pay equity is not important. Let us sweep that off the table. That is not something we want to have anything to do with.
We do not want anything to do with unions or with economic diversification in the areas of this country that are hard hit economically. No, we do not want to help any of our disadvantaged regions. That would be something we would not want to do.
Finally, he talks about special interest groups. He mentions that we do not want to fund them. He suggests that we should not have to do that because they would pay for it themselves. I agree there are occasions where I would like to see somebody who is able to afford to make a case to the government pay for it themself, but not everybody has the financial resources to do that.
If we use the member's scenario, the rich would have an opportunity to present to Parliament and an opportunity to make their voice heard, but the poor would be shunted aside because they would not have the money to be able to do it.
I do not think that is the kind of representation we want to encourage as a government. I bring these points up to the member opposite and suggest that he might want to re-evaluate and take a second look at some of the suggestions that he is making to the hon. finance minister.