Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively to the remarks of the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier. I know the member well and I appreciate the work he has done in the House.
I would like to put forward a notion and wish to have the reaction of the hon. member. This House has passed legislation on environmental review assessment. Before the government undertakes any major piece of construction there is an environmental review so that we know the impact it has on the environment.
I have maintained in the past that before we present the budget or any changes in social policy that we have a human assessment review. Modern social statistics indicate that if poverty goes up and unemployment goes up, so do suicides, so does crime, so does alcohol dependency, et cetera. Therefore we could figure out the human costs. Before there are changes in social programs by a budget, should there not also be a human social assessment that would clearly lay out that if that measure produced so many more unemployed we would have so many suicides, so many more people in jail? In other words, lay out what the social costs will be before government undertakes any measure such as a budget.