Mr. Speaker, it was certainly a pleasure to walk down to that other place to receive a blessing of sorts for duties that we do here.
I would like to finish off with the education theme. The basic concept is that money has to be spent in the most efficient, effective way possible. The things we are doing in Canada and in the government should not be simply for our political benefit. We should be doing things for our constituents and our provinces that are in their best interest.
In the case of education, the best interest of Manitoba as I was explaining—I will not speak for other provinces—would be to have that money flow directly to the provincial government as opposed to being put through the millennium fund or through other federal government programs that require duplication of administration, extra boards, extra audits and those kinds of things.
The priorities in government spending can be seen differently by different parties, but some basic truths and beliefs should always be adhered to. One of those is that if we spend ourselves into a big hole and get into big debt over the years, at some point we will have to get out of it. The province of Manitoba has taken its budget and shown the way for the federal government. It has done this by attacking the debt at the start of a budget surplus or a balanced budget.
By doing a front end attack on debt the amount of interest that has to be paid at the start is lowered. The government seems to want to do it at the end. Things change over the years and maybe it will never get done.
I would like to comment on the Manitoba budget, not because it is a perfect budget but because of the instruction it can give to the House. I understand Manitoba's debt is around $6.8 billion. The provincial government put $150 million against the debt in its last budget some few months ago. It kind of promised, as did this government, to do something about the debt. In fact it had promised $75 million toward the debt. It doubled that because of the compound effect of paying off the debt.
When the compound effect of the extra $75 million was factored in over the 30 year debt repayment plan it was worth $300 million and knocked nine months of payments off the books. Hon. members will notice that it has an actual plan. It is not just some promise that it is maybe going to happen or that it will work out.
That type of investment, if members want to look at it like that, will pay big dividends in the area of social programs, education, health or any of the things as I explained earlier are the basis of society and have to be in place for anything else to work.
At the present time interest on the debt is costing Manitobans about $520 million every year, which works out to $450 per person. If we did not have to pay the interest and that money were left in the hands of Manitobans, most people would spend it and the first thing we know jobs would be created and everybody would be better off.
I was pleased to speak on a couple of points. I hope the government in future budgets will take heed of our words.