Mr. Speaker, contrary to the last speaker I certainly do not intend to be supporting the budget implementation act. The problems with it are quite massive. However, we cannot deal with everything at one time in one speech; 10 minutes is just too little.
There are good things in the budget but there are a lot of things that could have been done differently, that could have been done properly, that could have been done in keeping with what the provincial governments around Canada would like to have seen.
The duplication and the wasted money were just dripping from the last member's speech. I could see it and feel it. I believe that had this budget been properly prepared we would see a lot of benefits going to Canadians in actual dollars that are now going to be wasted.
I would like to deal with education for a minute since that was a topic recently brought up. We have in Canada two essential elements to our society that are really the basis for everything else. Those two elements are health and education. Without a good solid health program properly financed, people are not capable of working, and without education they will not know how to do the job in the new economy that has developed after the industrial revolution.
The federal government has great taxing powers and is able to use those tax powers to take a lot of money from all of us. That is not a bad thing in itself because some provinces certainly need a bit more help than others. However, when the federal government takes money away from taxpayers and from provinces, as it flows through Ottawa a certain amount is going to stay in administrative fees, in commissions, regulations and all kinds of things. In this balanced budget the funding for education was to go through the hands of the federal government.
I have made a point of speaking in Manitoba with students, provincial politicians, municipal politicians, teachers and average citizens. There is absolutely no doubt that to benefit all students in this country the money for education should not have gone into this millennium fund, this $2 billion, $3 billion, I cannot remember the exact figure now that we start talking billions of dollars.
A message was delivered by the Usher of the Black Rod as follows:
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Deputy to the Governor General desires the immediate attendance of his honourable House in the chamber of the honourable the Senate.
Accordingly, the Speaker with the House went up to the Senate chamber.
And being returned: