The member is shaking his head. Is he for or against the GST? Of course, his prime minister said they had created the GST, right?
Is the member confused? Yes, he should be confused. Is he thoroughly confused? Yes, he is thoroughly confused, and I can see why. This is the same group of parliamentarians who fought tooth and nail any idea of deficit and debt reduction and now this has become the new mantra.
As we say in French, if there is one thing that we can say about this Liberal government—and my colleague, the hon. member for Chicoutimi, is well aware of this—it is that they have been very consistent in acting on our ideas, not their own but our ideas.
The hon. member is confused. Let me enlighten him. He said we increased employment insurance premiums—
When the member for Scarborough Centre said we increased employment insurance premiums, what he forgets to add is that we did it also in a period of recession when there was a need for money in the fund.
The difference with this government is that it is creating unnecessarily a $12 billion to $13 billion surplus for the purpose of paying down the deficit for which this fund was never created.