Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the government brings a bill before the House to increase loan liability not by $50,000 or $50 million but by $50 billion. Yet it gets insulted and attacks the opposition party for questioning what is in the bill.
The government is suggesting that Reformers do not like affordable housing. That is a shallow argument. Our job is to ask why the government is increasing the liability by $50 billion. The government had better get used to it, because we will continue to ask these kinds of questions. It is about time somebody did. The government has been in place for two years and has overspent by $80 billion. It is about time somebody asked questions.
Every speaker talked about the minister of public works as though he came up with an innovative bill to help the country. Part of that was a PR exercise for a minister who has been in trouble for the last two years. Now that a cabinet shuffle is on the way, they are trying to make him look good. That is what this is about.
The previous speaker said that it would not cost the government anything. In the recession of 1980 when the Liberal government was in power, were any liabilities charged against the loss on defaulted loans? How much contingent liability is recorded on the books of the country for the current $100 billion and the next $150 billion when the $50 billion is added?