Mr. Speaker, I guess the hon. member did not have an opportunity to listen to what I said, even though he said he did.
What I said in my intervention was that the $10.4 billion is there. If he reads the Fiscal Monitor , which goes out to Canadians, he would see the figure.
The part he did not listen to, though, was that the government does receive between 25% and 40% of corporate returns the first half of the year and that private sector economists are saying that $10.4 billion surplus there today will not be there at the year end. They see a deterioration of that number because of the second half of the year. There are private sector economists like Robert Normand from Quebec who are pessimistic about 1999, indicating that the GDP is probably going to be on a bit of a downward track.
We are not going to hit a wall or anything. All we are saying is that the economy will experience a bit of a slowdown because of what is going on around the world. No one is denying it. I do not think the hon. member can say that I in any way indicated that health care was not a priority of all Canadians and that the government, through the prebudget consultation, is hearing from Canadians that health care is a priority. The government has not said that there would be no additional resources to health care. But I think it is responsible of a government to wait until there are the hard numbers on resources before making these types of decisions.
We spent the last 28 years and more in deficits. We were in a situation in 1993 of a $42 billion deficit. Canadians clearly do not want to enter that era again. The argument we are putting forward is that it is foolhardy to Canadians that we make an initial investment of $2 billion today, in fact immediately was the amendment, based on a mid-term number that may not hold up by the end of the year.
It is okay for opposition parties to make those statements, but government cannot be irresponsible, as I suggest the hon. member is being.