Mr. Speaker, you are quite right. I thank you for first of all for reminding me and second, for your excellent presiding over this Chamber.
The hon. member for Medicine Hat is quite at liberty to suggest that debate is needed on what is the optimal size of government debt. We are looking forward to hearing his contribution to this very important debate. We know that, with a federal debt of $600 billion which is 74% of Canada's entire yearly economic output, we are way beyond where we should be. One-third of every tax dollar has to go to pay the interest on the debt. That is money that cannot be spent on tax relief, on debt reduction or new spending programs to help Canadians. This is why—