Madam Speaker, I have to comment. I was truly warmed at the reading by the minister, and he is not the minister; I was thinking of minister in the ecclesiastical sense. It warmed the cockles of my heart.
The member said something about tax breaks not having an effect on the economy. I want to challenge his thinking about this and I would like him to respond.
Whether one taxes or not does not really destroy any money. All it does is change who gets to spend it. It is my understanding that when we are taxed, our earnings are simply put on a train or now on the electronic highway and they are shipped at a million miles a second to Ottawa. Politicians and bureaucrats spend the money which the people have earned.
It is certainly true that some government spending provides people with jobs. We know that is true for all government workers as it is true for other people as well who contract for government jobs. I do not think we would totally discount that taxes are an active player in the economy.
Most studies I have read or read about imply very strongly that if we leave the money close to the people who earn it, they actually invest it in a better way than most governments spend it. The member indicated some of the waste government is involved in.
I would like the member to comment on why it is in his view that reduction of taxes would not help the economy. It certainly would not hinder it. I think it would help it because the people would spend it more wisely than the politicians and bureaucrats.