Mr. Speaker, the member's remarks give me an opportunity to express feelings that I have with respect to gaming. Mr. Speaker, if you will forgive me I will go slightly off the topic but I hope that the member will react to my comments.
I have been increasingly uneasy with the way provinces have more and more been exploiting casinos, gambling and lotteries in general. I fear that this is creating as many if not more problems than is worth the money that is being collected. In other words the provinces are causing addiction, breaking up families, contributing to all kinds of problems that in the end the federal government will have to address by increases in transfer payments for social and health spending.
Gaming is becoming a serious addiction, on the same order as alcoholism and drug abuse. We, as legislators, be we at the federal level or the provincial level are forgetting our duty to the citizens by allowing the spread of this terrible problem simply because provincial governments want to make money easily without having to raise taxes. They want to make money by exploiting the weakness of people. This is a serious problem that the governments are going to have to address eventually.
I ask the member whether he agrees that gaming has become a serious sickness in society, that it is aided and abetted by the provincial governments and that sometime the federal government should intervene in order to protect the interests of Canadians who obviously cannot protect their own interests.