Mr. Speaker, I never heard so much rubbish in my entire life. This has to be the most regressive mathematics or antiquated theory I have ever heard in my entire life.
What is it that they are asking? Are they saying that if we were to charge retail taxes we should renovate supermarkets across the country? Or, if we were to charge taxes on gasoline we should fix up the pumps, bridges and roads? If we were to do this our government would not be able to function. Society as a whole could not function.
The member and his party have to remember that if today we are charging for insurance policies we are not spending it because the economy is doing well. What would happen if tomorrow the economic situation changed and we had a downturn in the economy? Is he saying that we should tell every employee in the country that we are sorry but the pot has run out of money because the Reform Party stood in the House of Commons and asked us to spend all the surplus we accumulated over the past three years during good times? Should we say that it is a bad time they will not be given anything at all? What a depressing approach these guys have come up with. It is absolutely terrible.
They are complaining about the government trying to get its house in order when it comes to the insurance policy governing CPP, the insurance policy when people retire in the future. They are telling us that we should not do that: How dare we provide Canadians with the proper insurance policy so that if they want to retire in the future there will be a little money for them. They are saying it is terrible for the government to provide a proper policy and proper protection for the people of Canada in the future.
Is the member telling the youth, people and workers of Canada that today the government should spend all the money it has in terms of surplus? Is he telling Canadians who are working today that tomorrow if they do not have work and there is no more money left in what he is calling a pot, which is not a pot because it is general revenue, not to expect anything from the government? If that is the case he had better not stand up at all.