Madam Speaker, I would like to speak specifically to that portion of the member's speech which deals with base Chilliwack.
It is an interesting example. We have been listening to Reform members all morning and they keep saying that the government has not cut enough, that the Minister of Finance has not cut enough, and that we must continue to keep focusing on a balanced budget. Yet here we have a concrete example in the member's riding, where
his community has been a victim of this ideological campaign to eliminate the deficit almost overnight.
I am sympathetic to the closing of that base. There are several other examples across the country where this obsession with the deficit has shut down key government instruments, the government presence that has helped build the country.
I listened to the member say that he went to Treasury Board, the very group that did the cutting. He went back after the cutting was done and said: "Can you help us get this thing going again?" He feels that he has been a victim of this deficit thing that is evolving in the House of Commons.
I say to the member respectfully and sincerely, does he not think that this campaign to balance the books virtually overnight should now be halted a bit and we should get back into the business of putting a bit more government intervention into the economy so that we can get our constituents back to work. What would the member say to that?