Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to what my colleague opposite had to say, just as I have been listening to presentations all afternoon.
I know the member takes a great interest in these things. Frequently today concern has been expressed about the economy in one way or another and we have had suggestions as to where the problem is. I heard the member say that it was the dollar and so perhaps by manipulating the dollar we could help the economy. There are different things.
However, it does strike me that whatever we read in the media lately about the economy and what could be done about it, it is all speculation by economists. They all have different theories as to what we can do.
It seems to me, and this is where my question lies for the member, that in times like these we should not rely on economic theories which are just that, theories. In times like these, times of modest uncertainty, the only thing we can do that we know is going to pay off in the future is invest in the future. Our tax policies and our spending policies should be geared to that.
As we say, we should invest in people. We should invest in prenatal care and post-natal care. We should invest in our elementary schools and make them as effective as possible. For example, we should put them all on the Internet in the modern age so that kids in kindergarten can get used to computers and used to being on the Internet. Going further up the system, we should give scholarships to make it possible for young people to go to college and to university. We should make the tax environment as good as is humanly possible for research and technology. We should have tax breaks to educate not just scientists but people in the trades and things of that type.
My question for the member is this: what does he think about that? Does he not think that in fact what has been happening these last several years has been exactly that and that by investing in people in all of those ways we are laying the best foundation we can for a strong economy?