Mr. Speaker, I would love to visit the riding of the Bloc Quebecois member. Perhaps shortly.
As to his proposal, I agree that we cannot cut indiscriminately. We need to have a strategy, and I believe strongly in a real strategy of economic development. After all, this is going to cost a bit of money.
I agree with a system whereby members would have more say in budget affairs, even those of government departments. Historically speaking that is the real reason for the existence of Parliament. The legislative process is only secondary to it. The first thing is to provide the government with money, and that is what Parliament was created for.
I would welcome the opinions of members on the expenditure of public funds. Whether we need a committee like the one proposed by the Bloc Quebecois, I am not so sure, because government spending is extremely complex. Let us take the example of my department. A member of the committee-not my committee, but the committee of the House- would have to look not only at the expenditures under my authority, not only at all the programs of Industry Canada which total about $6 billion, but also at the spending of the National Research Council, the Canadian Space Agency, Statistics Canada and others. There is a lot to cover, and I was just talking about the Committee on Industry.
I believe that any given committee has a lot of work if it wants to review the expenditures of all departments. If one committee should review all government expenditures, it is really the Public Accounts Committee which answers reports like the one presented by the Auditor General.