Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the parliamentary secretary's speech. He certainly gives a good perspective.
We are concerned about the people of Canada. The real response to his intervention is not whether we want to look after the people but rather how to do it. The question arises: Is it good for jobs in the country to have the government spend 50 per cent of our money?
To me the answer is obviously no. It would be much better for the government to spend less of our money and to allow individuals to promote and improve themselves in job situations because the private enterprise system is working much better. That is one of our main points of debate.
I want to ask the parliamentary secretary a very difficult question. He may choose to talk around it instead of answering it, in which case I will assume that either he does not want to answer it because it is embarrassing to him to be on that side of the House and to answer it, or he may be equivocating and does not know. I do not know what he will say. However if he chooses to answer I would be very pleased.
The item of debate today is whether the 3 per cent of GDP is an adequate target. I am really quite convinced that it would be best if we eliminated deficit spending and stopped putting the government and the people more and more into debt.
Is 3 per cent an adequate target? Yes or no.