Mr. Speaker, last Saturday, the Minister of Finance said in an interview published in Le Soleil that everything to reduce the deficit was on the table. In other words, the minister is simply ignoring the commitment made by the Prime Minister in the last election campaign that he would not raise taxes. On the expenditure side, the minister tries to justify additional cuts in social programs that might total $7.5 billion, arguing that everyone would have to do his or her share.
Instead of targeting the needy, the unemployed and the middle class, I suggest the minister take a good look at the government's operational expenditures, subsidies to corporations, Defence spending and duplication, and ensure that taxpayers who live on high incomes are the first in line to pay their fair share of taxes.