Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we are debating a motion on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the cuts it has suffered in the last budget.
The comment I would like to make, and my colleague will have the opportunity to add to that when I am finished, is that the budget as a whole does not seem to be based on a corporate plan. What I mean by that is that the cuts appear to have been made at random. The CBC has had its share, as well as other government agencies and programs. There are consequences to all of that. The Americans have an expression for this type of random cutting and the consequences that follow.
They call it dynamic scoring. What is it exactly? Well, it has been discovered that when cuts are made in one place, there are macro-economic consequences elsewhere. It means that in trying to save money here, we force people into unemployment there, which creates, in the economic cycle, a decline whose effects we do not always take the time to measure in advance. So, do we know how many businesses who provide services to the CBC will see their sales reduced because of these budget cuts that will force the CBC to buy fewer services from them?
Do we know how many people will be laid off? Do we know how many of these people will be unable to find a new job in their area of expertise or in another area? Do we know by how much welfare costs will increase in each of the provinces? We have to realize that what happens with all these cuts-and the cuts to the CBC are no exception-is that the federal government is saving some money but is forcing the provinces to spend more on welfare. Not only have we shifted the problem, but we may well have made it worse.
No macro-economic study supports the effects of what the Americans call dynamic scoring. We are making cuts at random, we do not have specific targets, we do not know where that will lead us and I think it is something that Canadians have a right to know. I would like my colleague to comment on my perception of the way we are not being governed.