Mr. Speaker, I welcome your appointment to the Chair. I am sure you will do fine work on behalf of all of us in the House.
I welcome the remarks of the hon. member for Qu'Appelle. We all know that he is anything but a new member. He spent about 25 distinguished years in the House and I am delighted that the voters in Qu'Appelle have decided to send him back to the House. I think he has made an enormous contribution to the debate that is taking place. I look forward to more interventions from him.
Now that we have five official parties in the House, this Parliament will work better and all regions of Canada will be better represented in the 36th Parliament.
Let me say that I too welcome the debate on what the government is going to do with greater revenues as a result of a growing economy. I welcome the suggestions made by the member for Qu'Appelle. However let me say that I think Canadians are a balanced people, are pragmatic and believe in balanced approaches. This is the reason why the government and the Liberal Party said in the election campaign in May that we propose to spend half of any surplus or extra revenues on tax reduction and debt reduction and the other half on the development of social and economic programs. I believe that is a balanced approach and something that Canadians support.
I would like to hear the member for Qu'Appelle comment on that.