Mr. Speaker, ironically it was the Trudeau Liberal government of which the present Prime Minister was a member and a one-time finance minister that first sold Canadians on the myth that big government could solve most of our problems. What they never made clear was that they would pay for this by heavy taxation and borrowing from future generations.
For more than a quarter of a century Canadians have been encouraged to increasingly rely on government and they have done just that. The disastrous consequences of these Liberal policies are now threatening the well-being of society.
As a co-pilot and former ground support staffer, the failure of the human resources minister to reform social programs to make them target better and cost less is a failure that all Canadians will pay for in the form of higher taxes.
We need to fight the debt and deficit not to hurt people but to help them, to free them from the chains of insecurity, the links of which are made of debt and interest payments. The welfare state is sinking under the weight of its own waste, inefficiency and disabling dependency.
Fundamental reform and renewal of our social security framework are absolutely imperative if we are to have any hope of sustaining our existing high quality of life, providing Canadian youth with opportunities rather than simply an unmanageable financial obligation, and continuing to help the poor and needy among us.
The government intends to continue to borrow billions of dollars every year. Extra interest must then be paid on each year's borrowings. Each extra dollar in interest is a dollar taken out of our economy, a dollar that could have been used to expand a business, take advantage of trade opportunities or hire an unemployed Canadian.
Let us imagine what Canadians could have done with the over $40 billion we had to pay out of our pockets in interest last year alone. Let us imagine the health care it would have paid for or
the poor whose basic needs could have been met. Let us imagine the education and training that $40 billion could have provided or the help to our seniors who live in poverty.
The government should act now before interest drains our social security further and further every year, get a grip on its spending, find more effective ways to deliver the services we require, and let us get on with the job of building a secure society for ourselves and our children.