Madam Speaker, the member for Kelowna discussed various spending initiatives in the budget. One of the things he glossed over in his presentation was the fact that direct government program spending by the federal government this year compared to 1993 when we first took office was down $4 billion. At the same time, in the last budget the Canada health and social transfer was completely restored to the level it was at when we took office in 1993.
If the member would reflect upon this he would see that this has been demonstrated in the government's commitment to transfers to the provinces, which includes the Canada health and social transfer. If equalization payments were included, he would see that transfers are up to about $40 billion.
If we look at the direct spending trends since we took office and brought the deficit under control, we find that our spending increases have kept pace with inflation and the demographic growth in the population, and that is it.
When the member throws out these percentages of direct program spending he masks and distorts the real picture. The government's direct program spending is significantly down from 1993 when we first took office, and our transfers have been completely restored, if one includes the tax points, which in an honest debate one must do.