Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question and for his speech. I was listening carefully to him. I know he is concerned about these issues. He brings a real passion to seeing our debt reduced.
I assure him that every member on the government side is equally committed to balancing the budget and to making sure that future generations of Canadians are not saddled with the debt as we currently are.
The major difference between the government and the third party is the quickness related to actually delivering the savings needed to produce a balanced budget.
If the hon. member reviews his speech, I caution him not to deal with the total expenditures but to look at the amount of money spent on programs. From the beginning of the government we have been in the process of reducing it from $120 billion to $108 billion. That is significant progress.
We would like to be optimistic and say that the economy will continue to perform as it did last year at 4.5 per cent growth, but we know that in the past many governments have disappointed Canadians by making high growth and revenue projections and in the end have come back to Canadians with increased debt. We refuse to do that.
We also know that politicians are politicians. If we set objectives far down the line and say that in five or six years we will have a balanced budget, and a crisis comes up such as the Mexican peso crisis in January, people say not to worry about it too much because we can adjust further down the line. We can hold their collective feet to the fire and say our objective this year is x billions of dollars in debt and we are going to reach it. We are not going to compensate in two or three years; we are going to look after it right now.
The Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister have been very effective in bringing a discipline to the government. Through the actions we are taking, we are setting an example for many other governments across the country. At the turn of the century we will see ourselves in a very fine position, one we can all be proud of.