My friends are also upset. We want to know what the government is saying. What is the plan? There is no plan. They have been around for a year and we want to know what they intend to do. Canadians want to know. That is that they were elected to do, yet they have not been able to produce.
The Minister of Finance talks about the deficit being reduced to 3 per cent of the GNP within three years. It is the wrong target because the debt will continue to grow. He has not given us any idea how he is going to go beyond that.
To bring it down to $25 billion in three years is minuscule, timid and lacks any guts whatsoever to get the job done. Now we find by the Minister of Finance's own admission last week that even his own small and timid target of reducing the deficit to $25 billion is going to be out of his reach unless he makes more serious cuts. He has not given us a plan.
We need to know what the government intends to do. Canadians have their right surely because those members were elected on a red book that set action and we have had one year of inaction.
The Minister of Finance tells us about the $6 billion to $9 billion of additional cuts that are necessary to meet this target. Yet nothing in the two documents that he tabled last week before the finance committee, "A New Framework for Economic Policy" and "Creating a Healthy Fiscal Climate", in any way shape or form gives us any idea how the minister is going to tackle this job of cutting.
He could have gone back to the plan that we laid out last year, our zero in three plan. We laid it all out there. It was quite simple. The advice was there for free and yet even that seems to be beyond his comprehension.
He did say last week that what we seek are jobs and growth. To get there we must stop the debt. Our ultimate goal is a balanced budget. He has said it. We want him to deliver. We want to know how he is going to deliver and we want to know when he is going to deliver on the commitment that he made before the finance committee last week.
The minister also said that the entire role of government in the economy must be rethought. I hope he has some kind of vision when he makes these kinds of statements, some plan or idea of
the role of government in this country and how it is going to interact with private industry to ensure that we get back together on our fiscal senses. Nothing has been produced.
The government has lost a clear sense of economic leadership in a vision of what the role must be in a modern economy and where it should leave the action to others.
Here is another quote out of the same publication. We see that the Minister of Finance really does not know. He is asking Canadians what they want. This is what I call leadership from behind. He says: "We have a problem. Everybody talk about it, please. If I can find that there is some consensus in the nation then I will go in that direction". That is not leadership.
That is leadership from behind. That accomplishes nothing. We are looking for resolute action now to resolve the deficit for the benefit of future generations. Six hundred billion or $650 billion in debt at an interest rate averaging 6, 7 and 8 per cent is completely and absolutely unsustainable by this country. The Minister of Finance seems quite willing to allow that to happen.
Canadians deserve to know what cuts are to be made, when they are to be made, how and when this government plans to balance the budget. The Canadian people deserve to know the vision of the Minister of Finance and the role that the government has for this economy.
I ask the Minister of Finance now to ensure that he eliminates all the waste in government, that he can reform the MPs pension plan. He can start here in this House. He does not have to go out in the street and talk to Canadians and say: "What do you want?". We in the Reform say and I know that all Canadians agree that it is time that we reform the MPs pension plan.
I looked at the public accounts. They were tabled in the House last week. The government threw in another $10 million just to bring up the level of money in the plan to cover the excess payments that are now going out because 200-odd MPs at last election are now out on the street. They are not out on the street but they are on their own. They are out on the street with a huge pension plan paid by the Canadian taxpayers. They are upset and they would like to see some reforms.
If the Minister of Finance needs any ideas we say he can start right here in this House.