Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has done a fine job ignoring the reserves. It was not mentioned at all in the budget tabled three weeks ago. The government is boasting about injecting a little more money into national defence, but the Minister of Finance makes no mention of the fact that the reservists got nothing.
The Liberals are praising their budget, but I cannot see why. There is very little money in it for health care and education, immigrants are still charged an entry fee, and there is no funding for the reserves.
When it comes to natural disasters, reserves are the first group called upon in the country: the Saguenay floods of 1996, the Red River flood around the time of the last federal election, the ice storm in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. I could go on. What would Canadians have done without the reserve forces in these situations?
The government has used the reserves on many occasions since 1993. Why were they forgotten in the last budget?