Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to speak tonight to these estimates, to the spending of money. I would like to be able to speak about the great move in tax reductions but we do not see that. We see a lot more spending. Spending is the topic that is on the minds of a lot of Canadians today.
I remember arriving here in 1993 and hearing the Liberals say that they were going to do something about the million children that are living in poverty. We are now in the year 2000, and they are still saying that they have to do something about the million and a half children living in poverty. It sounds to me like something is wrong here. They went backwards. They are going the wrong way. In 1993 we had a million children living in poverty. Now we have a million and a half children living in poverty and they want to pat themselves on the back and applaud the great things they have done in this category.
When I arrived in 1993 they were quite upset about the poverty and the lifestyles that existed on some Indian reserves. I have seen most of these reserves. I have seen the ones that are really good and I have seen the ones that are really suffering.
In 1993 we said that we need some accountability. The Liberals said that they were going to address that issue. They said they would take care of the situation. We are now in the year 2000 and we have coalitions building out there trying their best to get some accountability to make it happen, but it is getting worse.
My, my, my, what a track record. It would take hours to talk about the Liberal spending that really makes a lot of sense, like hanging dead rabbits in a museum.