Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party to which the hon. member belongs is planning on reducing the deficit to 3 per cent of the GDP within two years. Of course, the last time we had an annual deficit equal to 3 per cent of the GDP was 20 years ago, in 1974. I would like to remind the members that we started to have deficits around 1970, when our country was run by a Liberal government under the leadership of Mr. Trudeau. You certainly remember that, Mr. Speaker.
Year after year, the deficits started to grow and the Liberal government began to play Santa Claus. It made promises. The deficits continued to grow to a point where the current deficit exceeds 6 per cent of the GDP. Our country is on the brink of bankruptcy, and if we do not want to mortgage the future of many generations to come, we will have to change our mentality.
I ask the government member who just spoke if it is a change in mentality when the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, the member for Hull-Aylmer who is sitting on the other side, takes a government plane, a Challenger, to go and give two small lectures in the United States at a cost of $170,000 to Canadian taxpayers. Is it a change in mentality when we send a delegation of F-18s and F-16s to Florida to play war games? The William Tell competition cost no $2 million.
Is it a change in mentality when the Prime Minister tells us that the CSE does not spy on Canadians even though there is a building here in Ottawa housing over 1,008 employees whose job is to do just that at a cost of between $250 and $270 million a year? Is it a change in mentality to have all these duplications of services for the same people? We had a good example of that just recently. Last year, Ontario created the position of Commissioner of the Environment. Last week, in a statement, the Minister of the Environment announced the appointment of another Commissioner of the Environment here, in Ottawa.
As for manpower training, we lose $250 million a year just with Quebec. Both governments want to train the same worker. That costs $250 million a year. It is Mr. Bourbeau, the former Quebec minister, a Liberal minister, who said that, not me.
Will there be a change of mentality on the Liberal side? Will we still let the very rich take advantage of tax shelters and pay very little, if any, income tax, thanks to the family trusts where we could find a couple of billion dollars. Will there be a change of mentality on the Liberal side? When they attack the needy and those who lost their jobs, when they cut off those on welfare, when they bleed the poor and let the rich get richer, will that be a change of mentality?
In closing, I ask whether the Liberal Party will again play Santa Claus, make nice promises and mortgage our future? It is all very well to want to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent, but it will require more than mere wishes. Il will require courage, yes, courage, Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt about it. The Liberal Party will have to be very courageous, but I question their courage, because their past actions do not bode well for the future.
I would like to hear my hon. colleague opposite defend her party.