Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to respond. Obviously the Reform Party believes a balanced budget is good. We have been arguing for that since we came to Ottawa in 1993.
When we came to Ottawa in 1993 we were fighting a tremendous election battle in the months leading up to that point. One of the quotes I remember best was a quote from the Prime Minister on the campaign trail. He said “zero deficit, zero jobs, zero hope”. What a difference the Reform Party has made. We have convinced the Liberals across the way that a zero deficit is a good thing. We moved the government and we channelled a lot of the opinion of the public toward moving toward a balanced budget. I am glad that my friend across the way and his colleagues have had a change of heart and have realized that a zero deficit no longer means zero jobs and zero hope. It actually is a very good thing.
I would also point out that it was the taxpayers who really did balance the budget. Sixty-six per cent of the improvement in the government's balance sheet came from increased revenues which came directly out of the pockets of Canadian taxpayers. The other big chunk of that, two-thirds of the remainder, came from cuts in transfers to the provinces for hospital beds and higher education.
That brings me to my friend's point about the millennium fund. He suggested I said it was a waste of money. That funding would have been better used by the provinces to restore transfers for things like higher education. We pointed out that the millennium funds benefits 6% of students. What about the other 94%? Why not allow the provinces to lower tuitions so that all students can benefit?
Finally, my friend has pointed out that the Reform Party believes that we should reduce the overall size of government to 10.5% of GDP. I absolutely believe that. We think the government is too fat. I notice the government increased spending in this budget for the Department of Canadian Heritage; more money for TV production funds while it is closing hospital beds around the country. That is ridiculous.
We say trim spending in Canadian heritage. Cut the waste in Indian affairs. There is a tremendous amount of it. Cut funding for regional development which is simply corporate welfare. We know that the Chamber of Commerce comes before the finance committee every year and says please do not fund business anymore, it does not want subsidies for business anymore.
We also point out that we can make more savings in employment insurance. There are tremendous savings to be made there. We believe that we need to reform equalization. We are not afraid to say that. We think equalization formulas need to be changed. In a country as wealthy as Canada it is ridiculous that three provinces would support seven. That is where we would make some of those changes.