Mr. Speaker, in the debate on the Investment Board, it should be remembered that we are faced with this issue because of the inaction of previous governments. I would like the leader of the Conservative Party to explain briefly to us why today, in 1997, we are considering such a bill, when we knew 10 or 15 years ago that there were major problems.
From 1984 to 1993, there was a Conservative government. During those years, the Conservatives' approach was to maximize economic development, or at least to implement measures to do so. Consider, for example, the idea of an investment board. Why did the Conservative Party not come up with this idea in 1985, 1986, 1987, say at the end of the first mandate, having had time to become acquainted with the issues? Today, we are faced with a situation where future generations will pay for 15 years of inaction. We are doing our utmost to avoid being unfair to the younger generations, but there will nevertheless be an intergenerational equity problem.
It seems to me that the reason for this is that action was not taken quickly enough in the past, with the Canada pension plan, to create a body that would ensure that there is enough money in the fund to provide for the future.