Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's remarks but what I remember from suggestions made by my constituents during the election campaign is that they would certainly agree to see the House consider that problem in particular. As you said, the committee has been there for a long time but has settled nothing. The present situation is due to that committee's actions.
I think we have an obligation to take concrete action and that would be a way to prove our openness to the electorate. I would be very happy if they could see on television the efforts of members to control expenditures. We can be assured that that would seriously change the way people see politicians, at least in my own riding and I believe that would serve the interests of the whole country.
As far as overlap is concerned, by the way the committee has been presented to us, I do not believe its purpose is to duplicate the other one. We would be ready to give this committee the main role and we hope that the government would do the same and recognize the importance of controlling expenditures, in order to regain room to manoeuvre and revitalize the economy.