Go ahead and applaud. It is a wonderful goal.
Again, if you look at the goal in terms of the family, it would bring its borrowing down to $10,000 per year from $16,000. That is the goal. In other words, it is still going into debt $10,000 per year.
What does this bill do to reduce the deficit? For this family, which is spending $64,000 a year and borrowing $16,000, it reduces its annual spending by $6,000.
Yes, it is important. But I am saying let us get the horses moving. It is good to save $6, but we need to save $16,000. That is the proportion that this bill proposes to save in our budget. I am appealing to hon. members in the government who have the responsibility, who have the power to do something about it: Let us get with it. The longer we wait the harder it gets. While this is good, we are wasting a whole day talking about pennies when we should be talking about the billions that are threatening the well-being of all of our citizens and, indeed, this whole country.
I am very pleased the government is heading in this direction. But from all of the information and all of the input that I get, not only from residents in the Elk Island constituency but from right across the country who write to us in huge volumes, it is becoming very urgent that we reduce our deficit. Let us get on with it.