Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Stoney Creek for his speech. I have appreciated working with him in committee. He has an ability to put the best possible face on a sorry situation and I want to congratulate him for that.
It is interesting that he talks about the benefit of lower interest rates as though the Liberal government has brought them down on its own when in fact the government is capitalizing and taking advantage of the interest rates on a worldwide basis.
He talks about an attitude of let them suffer. This is an attitude which I have a great deal of difficulty with as I travel throughout my constituency.
I think of an elderly woman whose husband died last year. She has a total combined income of about $13,000 a year. Now with the clawbacks of her old age pension she is having a great deal of difficulty and is finding it impossible to pay the taxes on the house that she owns. She is desperate to know what to do in light of these government policies.
I think of the small business people who have been established for years and are floundering under the weight of the regulations and rules of three levels of government and finding it impossible to pay for having to prove daily that they are keeping these rules. Comments about the new Canada pension plan startle me because they say that many of them are not going to be able to continue to operate and to pay these taxes.
I find it interesting that the member talks about the $1 billion scholarship fund when the students themselves are scoffing at it.
I would like to ask this member if he believes that the Canadian people are demanding higher and higher taxes for the level of service they are receiving which is putting them in such jeopardy in their established day to day lives.