Mr. Speaker, I will make comments on the various areas the hon. member mentioned.
If the principle I was espousing, that the people in the local areas best understand the situation and can best manage the funds and the fishery, were instituted we probably would not be in this mess today. I still maintain that one of the biggest problems with all the programs the government runs is that the bureaucracy in Ottawa is out of touch with the people in the local areas and cannot administer these programs properly.
Then the hon. member went on to blame Reform for the inaction of the government because we have not touched on this area or on that area. I find it inexcusable that the government would use that excuse to explain why it is not acting on tax reform.
We have clearly said that we need to balance the budget and we need to do it as soon as possible. If we were to balance that budget within the next three years we could begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We seem to think we have to provide these incentives for businesses to come from other countries and invest in Canada. Why? Because we overtax in the first place.
If we would get our act in order and begin to reduce government spending to the point where we could reduce taxes, this question that he has posed would be redundant. We would not even have to consider it. That is the problem.
We have been overtaxed to the point where we are driving businesses out of Canada. Now we try to compensate by giving them grants and tax concessions.