Mr. Speaker, I will focus my comments on the urgency of balancing the budget. This is the thing most Liberals are missing. The talk is always that they are on target. While they are meeting their soft targets, for which they should be commended, at the same time we are losing the battle.
As a high school student I ran a marathon race. Each of us in that high school competition had to set our own goals. Each person practised and did his training in order to achieve his goal. I set the goal to finish the race. That was my only goal. I have never been athletic. I have always been heavy for my size. It is not all muscle.
I set my goal to finish the race, and I did finish it. When I finished the run there was only one person left there, the high school official who checked me off as having met my goal. All the others had already gone home, but I finished.
Notice I do not have any credentials or accolades as an Olympic racer. I met my own goal, which is great, but I did not compete at all outside of that. This is what the Minister of Finance is doing. He is setting goals he can reach, which makes him feel good. There may be one person at the finish line, not many more, who will give him a check mark and say "you done good". However, he will not be an Olympic winner at the rate he is going.
The essence of the speed or the importance of the speed is what is happening in the growth of our debt. I did a few little calculations. In 1993 to pay off our debt we would have needed a surplus of some $47 billion a year for 25 years. Regrettably we now need an annual surplus of approximately $56 billion per year. We need a surplus that large if we are to pay off our debt.
Every year we postpone balancing the budget and bringing the deficit to zero, that number increases. That, hon. members, is the reason for the urgency. I really feel we are letting down our
children and our grandchildren by allowing the debt to grow indefinitely without solving the problem.
I recognize that my short time has ended. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the issue.