Madam Speaker, maybe the member should speak to the Prime Minister.
I thank him for his congratulatory remarks. With the help of some of my colleagues, we realized the cuts that the member mentioned. The budget of the Internal Board of Economy for 295 members of Parliament and this House is between $200 million and $230 million a year. Five million dollars may be saved by the end of the year and we hope to save even more. This is not a big reduction but we have to start somewhere.
We have to start from the top. That was the aim of this government. The Prime Minister did it with cabinet. We collectively did it here in the House. We are giving a good signal to the public administration in all departments. I would not like to pick on only one department. The member mentioned national revenue. It should be all departments.
The Prime Minister is reminding every cabinet minister on a daily basis to make sure that they are responsible. We are going that way.
In terms of consultation, the member and I agree. The rules are already in place through the finance committee. The least expensive consultation that we can have is through the finance committee of this House. We are doing it on the GST. Once the GST is finished, I am sure that with the budgetary process that we have in place this fall the finance committee will look at all the other tax expenditures and we will make progress.
Like I said, we all have to participate. I could quote letters. It is incredible how such a thing could happen. We are trying to serve almost 27 million people. We have a system, but it is a complicated system. If all of us sincerely want to help we can do our own little thing for which we are responsible as a member of Parliament. We can go a long way.
I hope that in this 35th Parliament this new spirit of co-operation and so on that we have shown in the past four months will continue. I am convinced that in the end we can achieve a greater result and Canadians will be better off. We run for office and get elected so that we can help Canadians feel good about this country. We want them to be better off. They can compete and look for a bright future.
I thank the member for his congratulations. Our difference is not that far apart. Sometimes we have to look at more than just dollars and cents. The hon. member said that through taxes we may get only $100 million back from our $2 billion. I do not want to dispute those figures. I did not do the calculation.
We also have to look at the wealth and the infrastructure that we put into our communities that will help to create a better business structure, a better lifestyle which in general helps people to feel better and feel more secure in our communities and therefore be more productive and more active.
That is the problem in our society. If we make sure that all Canadians are active, I think we will reduce the deficit and the debt and we will have a better society.