Mr. Speaker, you have to hand it to me, I know how it feels to the Reform crowd.
Deficit reduction is not by itself an end in itself. It is just a very important, pivotal, crucial way to an end, but we should never lose sight of what the end is because the end is all about people. It is all about those 670,000 who got jobs in the last three years but it is also about those people, 10 per cent in some provinces, 25 per cent or so in parts of my province, those large numbers of people who are kind of camouflaged by near percentages, those people who are hurting every day because they do not have jobs.
For them we must see to it that not only is the deficit reduced but that the interest rates are low, that they have more access to capital if they are in small business. If they cannot start a business because they do not have the first bit of capital we have to find a way to get them to a job so that they have an income. An $800 mortgage cannot be paid if there is no job in the first place to put food on the table.
For those who suggest that somehow with a wave of a magic wand suddenly all is right with the world, it does not work that way, even a couple of weeks before Christmas.
I am sharing my time with my friend for Annapolis Valley-Hants. Before I sit down let me say I believe the committee, through its recommendations on children and poverty, people with disabilities, the old question of productivity, a better deal for the volunteer and charitable sectors, has done a marvellous job.