Mr. Speaker, I will be brief because I really want to hear the Reform Party's answer to this question.
Some time ago, because of a similar perception of the debt problem, I was invited to join the ranks of the Reform Party.
However, even though we may perceive the problem in a similar way, it does not necessarily mean that we share the solution. Indeed, our respective solutions may differ.
In this context, I said earlier that in the last decade or two no government was able to control the debt and the deficit.
I submit that the reason for this failure rests with the system itself and that the system has to be changed. I would like to read the hon. member, if I may, Mr. Speaker, the end of the letter dated March 1st which the president and chief executive officer of the Quebec manufacturers' association, Richard Le Hir, wrote about the budget. It is only one paragraph long.
Faced with this situation, the federal government's only strategy is the relentless pursuit of the same policy in spite of all the evidence. Nothing else can explain Mr. Martin's reserve in his recent budget. He and his Liberal colleagues are hoping that, contrary to all expectations, a miraculous upturn in the economy will save Canada from the disaster it is headed for. They are making the same mistake the Conservatives made before them. They refuse to admit there is a structural aspect to the Canadian public finances problem. And for a very good reason! If they did, it would call into doubt the very structure of the system: the sacrosanct Constitution. That would be tantamount to opening Pandora's box. That is why, as we now say in Montreal, `les jeux sont faits, rien ne va plus'!