Mr. Speaker, the failure of the social program review has a direct impact on the spending in the budget.
As the government knows, over 60 per cent of its spending is in the social area. The budget cannot be balanced unless both social programs and social spending are substantially reformed.
Will the government not acknowledge that the primary reason the finance minister is now considering tax increases, which he was not doing two months ago, is because the human resources development minister failed to deliver on social programs and social spending?
In other words, will the government acknowledge that it is the taxpayers who are going to pay for the human resources development minister's failure?