Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the member for his question.
As I stated in my opening remarks, the minister responsible for human resources is calling for a debate where we advance ideas on how we can take the current $38 billion expenditure and redesign it in a way that we can get a better bang for the taxpayers' buck.
I believe that education is paramount in this debate. No one is questioning that. In fact there are no further cuts. It is a redesign of the current system.
I share the member's view. Education is something to which we must continually commit ourselves and of course the R and D that the member mentioned as well.
In order to make sure that the resources are there, to make sure our educational system can handle not only the R and D aspect but also make sure that our younger people have access, we have to create an economy where they have income so that they can afford to pay for their tuition rather than take student loans. The greatest problem that our young people have had, especially in the last three years, is they have not been able to get decent work to pay for their university education. The whole economy has been flat.
The member knows full well that if we can create a more vibrant economy where younger people can get work it does not take long for a student, working part time and in the summer, to raise $6,000, $7,000 or $8,000 a year which goes a long way toward paying for his or her education.
We are going to have to put more emphasis on the macro economy rather than just the old system where we would automatically write cheques.