Madam Speaker, I have enjoyed working on the finance committee with the hon. member.
I took note of one thing she said with respect to debt. I suppose nothing concerns me more than the fact that the governments of the last 30 years have driven us into debt to the point where, as she mentioned in her speech, at one stage some 31 cents of every $1 collected in income tax went toward interest. Just think of what we could do if we did not have the debt to service. The amount of money that would be available for programs would be immense.
She then talked about this $3 billion contingency fund which, if not needed, will go toward reducing the debt. She said she was sure the debt would be repaid.
I taught mathematics for a number of years and have these math and finance formulas in my head. I did a quick calculation. To get rid of the debt, $580 billion, over the next 25 years, by the time I am 85, would require the posting of a surplus every year in those 25 years of some $50 billion a year. Here we are paying a puny little $3 billion if we happen to not need it at the end of each year.
I wonder whether she would comment on a greater urgency to reducing the debt so that we could reduce the amount of interest payments and have more of the taxpayers' money available for programs or to give them a tax break.