Madam Speaker, it is always interesting to listen to the member for Scarborough East and his sidekick from Mississauga West. The trouble with Liberal members is that we cannot pat them on the back because they are patting themselves on the back.
With respect to the prosperity in Ontario, last year 73% of all the net new jobs in the private sector was created by the province and a high percentage of the remainder was created by the province of Alberta. Is it not ironic that the two provinces with the lowest taxes have created the majority of the jobs and probably have also made the biggest contribution to reducing the deficit.
I heard the member from Scarborough say that the Ontario government had an increase in revenues of almost $10 billion with a 30% tax increase. Is it not ironic that tax increases or decreases increase the revenue. I would like the hon. member to comment on that.
The hon. member said that he was a debt hawk. Would he then agree that if we had locked the $3 billion contingency reserve into a repayment schedule with the servicing costs we could pay the debt back in 35 years? Would the hon. member support that type of a lock?