Mr. Speaker, I find it rather ironic that the hon. member for Longueuil, who sat for years with the Conservatives who increased the debt by $340 billion, is now advocating, after all his years in Parliament, the creation of a special commission or committee to review spending, when there already is such a committee.
The party opposite favours eliminating overlap and repatriating all powers to Quebec, so I find it ironic that they are advocating the creation of a special committee to review Canadian government finances and support this government. Yet, we are giving our support to the governments of Quebec and of the other provinces.
I find it difficult to understand how the hon. member for Longueuil can defend the committee he wants to set up to study government expenditures when these expenditures were not made by us. We already have a committee. If, in four years, the hon. member for Longueuil wants to create a special committee to study government spending because of extra or excessive expenditures, we will then be able to establish a special committee. But I do not see how we can set up this committee to review government spending when our government is not even responsible for all this spending.
I would ask the hon. member for Longueuil to tell me what this special committee could do that the existing committee cannot?