Mr. Speaker, the opposition keeps attacking the budget put forth by our government by using intimidation
regarding the culture preservation issue. As I said before, as did several other speakers, the budget has put in place measures to ensure that funds are available to preserve our culture as weknow it.
The fact remains that culture-perhaps the opposition will disagree-is something that evolves. There is no such thing as an unchanging culture. It grows and gets better over time.
Moving to other budget issues raised by the hon. member, the preservation of our social programs and the sacrifices that had to be made in the system we have enjoyed in Canada, we can be thankful for the measures that we have taken as a government to ensure that sufficient funding will be available to continue preserving the French language across Canada and preserving French language programming across Canada. The survival of the French-Canadian language and culture in Canada is guaranteed through the measures put forward in this House by the Minister of Finance to ensure that funds will be available.