Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from the NDP for his speech. However, I will correct him on a number of points. The hon. member suggests that we are somehow against the notion of this bill. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Reform Party has been on the cutting edge of providing constructive, effective and pragmatic solutions in order to revamp our economy and make it a nimble, aggressive tool for the people of Canada in the 21st century. It is unfortunate that neither his party nor the government has done as much as they could do on that matter.
The member alluded to what the auditor general mentioned. These were not just small concerns. They were large concerns, concerns of accountability. The auditor general said very clearly that 90% of the loans in the act would already have been made by private sector banks and that there was no need of money from the government. In other words, the taxpayer did not need to subsidize loans to the private sector. In this era of declining resources and a lack of money on behalf of all governments to provide for programs we already have, we are opposed to the taxpayer subsidizing the private sector on loans it would already be getting.
In effect the taxpayer is subsidizing the banks.
I would like to ask my hon. friend and colleague whether he will join with the Reform Party in holding the government to task to make sure this act is going to ensure the monies available are going to small businesses that would not normally get a loan from the bank and that accountability is put into the system so monies will be invested in such a way that they come back to the taxpayer and we have an ongoing replenishment of the cycle. This is what the Reform Party is very much in favour of.