Mr. Speaker, I hope that you will give me time to answer this long question.
First, I think that, like his colleague from Kootenay East, the hon. member for St. Albert did not catch the drift of what I said. I focused on international financial institutions just to show how pointless it was to make the motion as specific, as restrictive as they did, because the Auditor General included in his report last year measures relating to international financial institutions that have had practically no effect thus far. This is to say that focusing on certain areas of the very partial report of the Auditor General is not conducive to a global solution.
The other point my hon. colleague made was: how do we, of the Bloc, think that our marvellous committee is going to solve all the problems of this country? It is no panacea. In itself, creating a committee does not solve the problems, but this committee would identify the areas were costly duplication exists, not only costly duplication but also squandering and extravagant expenditures. After having identified all this, we would be able to take action on the various unnecessary, superfluous expenditures.
The last question my colleague asked me was: why insist so much on eliminating duplication? Are there reasons to believe that everything will work out for the best in our beautiful Canada just because duplication will have been eliminated? Of course not, but the fact remains that-based on figures from serious sources, not the Bloc Quebecois but a serious economist
like Mr. Fortin, as well as the Bélanger-Campeau Commission-duplication between Quebec and Canada alone costs from $2 to $3 billion a year. Perhaps savings could be made in that area by cutting unnecessary government expenditures, would you not say?