Mr. Speaker, I too met with the RCMP and the railway police when they were here last week.
It is important to note that Reform members do not have a monopoly on justice in Canada. They do not have a monopoly on being sympathetic with the police when Reform says the police need more money. Let me also say there is hardly a group that does not come here that in their opinion does not need or require more money. It is very difficult as a government.
My father-in-law often said to me that it is easy to be in opposition. Opposition members can say anything. They do not have to prove anything. They simply open their mouths and anything can come out and when it does, they never have to prove it. To a degree and in fairness, the opposition's job is to try to poke holes.
I sometimes get saddened that we do not talk about the good things in Canada. We do have a low crime rate. There is no doubt about it. Reform members want Canada to be like the U.S. with a gun behind every door. They want to have health care like in the U.S. The reality is that is not what Canadians want. This government has put money into health care and education. Yes, it has tried to put money toward tax cuts. Yes, it has a zero deficit. Yes, it has started to pay down the debt. We have done a lot of good things.
When I met with the police officers last week, they told me they understood and accepted that. And yes, they said they required more money and I believe they probably do. One of the things they pointed out was that if they had more money, particularly for some of the special projects, and perhaps this is what my hon. colleague across the way was referring to, they would be able to have those proceeds go into the community. The Liberals were the ones who allowed that to happen.
I support more money in that direction also, but in correlation and in a rational and responsible way with everything else we have to do.
My hon. colleague did not make any mention of the fact that our colleague from Kamloops talked about poverty being a major cause of crime. Could my hon. colleague talk about poverty within the nation?