Mr. Speaker, in response to the hon. member who said that there were all these cuts taking place in the budget and so on, I would remind him that there is a need in any budget to balance the objectives. One of the most important is to make sure that the fiscal stability of the country is held in a position which is respected by international finance.
I would like to cite a very important authority on this matter. I quote from a page of Hansard of May 4, 1989.
We never see any recognition of the fact that we have throughout the country a responsibility for public finances and that those finances must be absolutely sound if we are to maintain social programs.
In other words, says the speaker, our responsibility is not just to Canadians living today who are having trouble but also to future generations. He goes on to talk about the need to handle the debt and deficit problems. The authority I cite is the-
The authority I just quoted is the hon. leader of the Bloc Quebecois, when he was a member of the Conservative government. He has changed his position since he left the Mulroney government to become leader of the Bloc Quebecois.