Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Again I think he is labouring under two misapprehensions.
First of all we were invited by the minister to have this meeting to try to thrash out our views. We welcomed that but we did not initiate it. This came from the hon. member's side not our side. His speech is well directed but it ought to be directed to his side of the House.
My second point is we have participated in public debate on the deficit and debt reduction for 18 months now. Personally I have given thousands of speeches on this subject, many of them in public meetings with open question periods. We welcome that and we welcome doing it in this House. I was making the point that as many members know, when one debates these issues so often the partisan aspects get into it and we get away from the real issues.
We know in question period if we raise some hot topic about the jets and the $140,000 expenditure on that we can get a great hit on the evening news. We can get a great deal of attention by doing that. However if we raise some structural problem with the health care system which can probably save $1.5 billion to $2 billion that is not even newsworthy because it is complicated and it cannot be discussed in short exchanges.
I welcome all kinds of opportunities for public debate and debate in this House. However I do think there would be some merit in accepting the minister's invitation to sit down around a table and get into the details of some of these issues. Then those discussions could be carried into the House as well.