Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that it is the Reformers who are debating with each other but I certainly like to talk about these things.
What a delight it is to see a party that actually has a plan. In a previous intervention we talked a bit about the necessity of having a plan. The federal Liberal government since 1993 has really not had a plan at all. It had rolling targets which basically said they would hit whatever they shot at. Point the gun anywhere and whatever we hit was what we were shooting at. This is no way to run a country.
One of the witnesses to our finance committee hearings made that as a very special point. It was mentioned to us that it would engender a great deal of economic optimism in our country if the federal government would set some realistic goals, state them and achieve them. That is much more encouraging to the economy than saying we will do the best we can and meanwhile build up a slush fund for an impossible election coming up.
I would like to have the member comment on one of the things he mentioned regarding accountability and spending money properly. One of the problems we have had is that the auditor general has not been willing to sign off on the books of the federal government because of some accounting practices that are not in keeping with those of the Chartered Accountants Institute of Canada and other authoritative accounting methods.
I would like to have the member's comments not only on what things are happening there but why that is wrong and why it is discouraging to Canadian people.