Mr. Speaker, I agree with my hon. colleague that the debt is going to increase. However, we have to make sure that we deal with the deficit before we can deal with the debt issue. That is what we are doing in a reasonable, common sense approach.
If we say we will do it within a year, I guess if we cut every program in government it could be done within a year. But what would be the long term cost of that? It could be done in two years if we wanted to cut every program. We would have to look at the cost of the programs.
Let me respond to the question of my hon. colleague. I am sure he is willing to listen to my response. In our cultural industry and scientific community it takes years to build infrastructure. They do not pop up from nowhere. We as the government are not going to cut them wholesale, which would cause serious problems in the future.
It is the same with our social programs. We can ignore and cut our social programs, but what price do we pay in the future? I ask the hon. member to look at the future cost of cutting those programs because in the end we will have to face the social costs.