Mr. Speaker, slash and burn is not true, except for the hon. member's pension which he will someday be eligible for. We would certainly slash and burn that. We think parole boards are unnecessary. We would probably slash and burn parole boards. We could do with better correctional services. We would slash and burn a few other places where dollars are wasted. The member could count on that.
As far as multiculturalism is concerned, there are a number of things in our budget. We set priorities. The priorities were pretty well listed. It just so happens that multiculturalism is something we believe should be funded by the communities that are affected. I do not believe the communities object to that. We do not object to multiculturalism but we say we are at a time now when some of the nice things to do are not affordable. They will have to be paid for by some means other than tax dollars.
As far as seniors are concerned, we said from the beginning, and our budget says it loudly and clearly, that one of our highest priorities is to make absolutely certain those who are most in need will have their needs addressed. That is loud and clear in our budget. That idea came from many senior citizens in my riding who said they did not know why they were being given something that was just clawed back and they would just as soon not have that happen.
As far as the transfer payments are concerned, what has happened as a result of this government is worse than what would have happened under the taxpayers budget over three years. I challenge any of the members over there to go back to square one and take a good long close look at what those transfer payments are doing.
The member talked about post-secondary education. Perhaps I was mistaken and there were not thousands of young people on our
lawns protesting what was happening by this government in that area. Maybe I was elsewhere at the time.
I do not quite understand where the government is coming from. It is already a known fact that what it has done is worse than what it would have been under our plan.