Mr. Speaker, I listened to the comments made by my hon. colleague. Either the hon. member is not taking a very responsible attitude in this House or he has been out of this great democratic forum, which is the House of Commons, for the last two years.
We talk about making major changes in the best interest of Canada and of the whole population, and that is basically what we have been doing since 1993. About the huge deficits we have, I would like to remind the hon. member that it was under the Conservative government, of which he was a member at the time, that Canada had its most outrageous deficits and went through the worst political situation ever in our country.
When the hon. member talks about how much our social programs are costing the Canadian population, his comments seem anachronistic, to say the least. You know, we are talking about social programs which were implemented decades ago. Today, basically, we are acting as the responsible government that we are. We want to review the social safety net we have developed as a
society, and which we are very proud of, to ensure that it is more responsive to the needs of Canadian society.
That is what we are doing and we are going even further by taking action on the economic front and working with the small businesses. We have to increase the competitiveness of our small businesses and use a modern approach to do so. In saying that, I am reminded of course of the Federal Office of Regional Development, which has created a partnership and is working with all of the communities throughout the province of Quebec and providing what is called the SMB access centre, so that our small businesses can have access to world markets, which they did not have before, and can use the federal government's expertise in international development to gain access to a network open to the whole wide world.
The Liberal Party has always had the courage to make the appropriate changes, always keeping Canada's best interests in mind. We avoid partisanship, unlike the opposition parties, and we also avoid a doctrinaire approach, unlike the opposition parties. We always act in the best interests of all Canadians.