Mr. Speaker, back in 1995 the CHST when it was created was $19 billion a year. The Liberal government brought it down to $11.5 billion per year and is slowly incrementally jacking it back up. It went to $12.5 billion. In this budget it is supposed to go to $14.5 billion and even $15 billion. That is still $4 billion less in actual spending than it was before.
The government cannot use smoke and mirrors forever. Canadians do not believe it and they frankly do not accept this stuff about transferring tax points. They want cash on the barrelhead. They want to see the federal government's actual participation in health, social spending and post-secondary education. Those are the priorities we heard about when we consulted with Canadians. That is what they told us. They wanted the government to use this budget to fix health care, to stop the crisis in post-secondary education tuitions and to do something about social spending to elevate the standard of living for all Canadians. If that is not our goal, I do not know what is.