Would you be please quiet. It is a bit as if I took the minister's hat size, divided by his shoe size, less his waist size and said: "There is the amount of your debt". If he puts on weight, it does not work anymore. The same is true for the GDP.
We want Canadians to know that they are in debt to the tune of $20,000 each, babies born this morning arrive with a $20,000 debt. In the past two years, we have added $3,700 to their debt load and to that of those who are not yet born, but are on the way.
I do not think we can close our eyes. The government appears to be acting like a windsurfer who has just come off a great big wave and is on the flat part of the wave. He is turned sideways and is getting ready for the next wave, whenever and however it comes.
This is what a budget plan is. You have to invent, think of the next wave. Right now we are talking about 10 per cent unemployment. Some 400,000 workers in Quebec alone were added to the welfare rolls last year. They are not considered unemployed anymore, and our statistics are therefore lower. But there are people who are not eating or eating very little. The member, with every good intention, I am sure, refuses to see the data of the problem.
My question is as follows: Does the budget tabled by the Minister of Finance meet his expectations? Is he ready for the next wave? He has not convinced me that he is.