I am being dressed down by the junior minister of finance, the selfsame member who dressed down homemakers the other day. Do not get me started on that. I do not think the minister wants to hear about that again.
We encourage the government to face this issue head on. Instead of getting engulfed in a debate about a pan-American currency, which is a fine debate to have at some point, let us address the things we can do something about to not only improve the productivity of the Canadian workforce and make our businesses more productive but to put more money into people's pockets, to reward them for the job they have done in balancing Canada's budget, to reward them for creating the wealth that makes Canada one of the greatest countries in the world to live in.
Those people should be rewarded. In so doing we will find that our dollar will start to strengthen. My friends in the Bloc, in the Liberal Party, in the Conservative Party and in the NDP would agree that if we ever had a debate on a pan-American currency and decided for some reason to actually proceed with a pan-American currency, it would be an awful leap to go from 65 cents Canadian to a full $1 and not have all kinds of dislocation as a result.
In the meantime, why do we not take some steps with the tools we already have to improve the strength of the Canadian economy and thereby the Canadian dollar? Why do we not start to cut taxes? Why do we not pay down the debt?
The government had a golden opportunity with the last budget. What did it do? It blew it. Instead of taking what would have been a very large surplus and using it to start to cut taxes in a meaningful way, it dramatically increased spending. Its spending budget was $104.5 billion. Instead of sticking to that budget it decided to go over budget by almost $8 billion.
If I were in the private sector and did something like that, I would be kicking stones down the road and without a job. However, each and every year the government goes over budget. It raised next year's spending projections by $4 billion. It goes on and on.
The government has the tools to begin to address the problem of a weak Canadian currency. It simply refuses to act. Despite all the rhetoric we heard from the finance minister when he was on this side of the House and pursuing the Liberal leadership, the government has the tools and it refuses to use them.
Now all of a sudden the spectre of a pan-American currency is raised as some way to get us out of this mess. We say that debate is much too premature. We do not need to have that discussion today. In fact, we think it takes the heat off government which for too long has delayed dealing with the issue of productivity and strengthening the dollar. We would much rather see it address this issue head on.
I have talked a lot about the failure of the government's record. It is a record it should be embarrassed about. I simply ask my friends across the way to not take my word for it. Let me quote from people who watch the performance of the government. Here is a March 5 press release from Nesbitt Burns:
Canada's poor productivity performance is the result of confiscatory and uncompetitive tax rates—and dramatic tax cuts are urgently needed in order to boast economic activity, job creation and income growth.
We have all kinds of quotes from the Conference Board of Canada, CIBC, Wood Gundy, and on and on they go, about the horrible performance of the government when it comes to productivity.
I will not only criticize. I will offer some concrete solutions on what to do about this problem. The first thing we should do is not get sidetracked on this debate about a pan-American currency.
The second thing we should do is take the surpluses we have and instead of spending them on all kinds of ridiculous programs, as the government does each and every year—