Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed I did not get to make some comments to the hon. member across the way. I know he was looking forward to that.
I just heard the hon. member for Fundy-Royal talking about the merits of the budget. There were a couple of things that sort of struck me which I have discussed with other members in these debates.
First of all I would like to say the statement made by the president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, as the member pointed out, rang about the same bell as that of the chairman of one of the major banks during the referendum debate when he said that in essence the world is going to end if the Charlottetown accord did not pass. Of course we saw that did not come about exactly.
The member is saying that this gentleman has said that the Liberal budget is on the right track. I wonder just exactly where that track leads to. There are a couple of inconsistencies. The member talks about all the different job creation programs that the budget is going to bring about. I wonder if the answer to the unemployment problem in Canada to the Liberal government is simply to put everyone who is unemployed on a government program.
I am sure those people would rather have real jobs. I go back to my earlier comments about where real jobs come from. They come from the private sector industry that has confidence in the fiscal responsibility of the government.
That is what this government has to show and it has to show it by cutting spending in real and positive terms. This has not happened.
The actual spending has increased by $3 billion this year. The member said they had made significant cuts in spending. That may be quite true but this is in proposed spending and projected spending not in real spending.
I can say I am going to spend $50,000 next week on something and then cut it back to $2,000. Can I take credit for saving $48,000? This is the same type of accounting that the previous administration used and the Liberal government before that.
We have to start talking in real terms about what it is going to take to get this economy going again. It is not going to be credit card infrastructure programs. It is not going to be job creation programs for which there are no jobs once the people graduate from those programs or attain their apprenticeships.
It is going to come from private sector confidence and private investor confidence when they start investing in this country and expanding their business. That is where it is going to come from.