I thank my hon. colleague for her question. Everyone will agree with me that making announcements at 5 p.m. on a Friday before a break week or during the summer, particularly on potentially contentious issues, is a long-standing strategy of this government. This is a reality.
What does it tell us? It tells us two things. The Minister of Finance may be floating trial balloons to see how people react; this is possible, but it does not say very much about him. Where the condition of persons with disabilities is concerned, a minister worthy of the name and office should be able to recognize the needs of people and take them into account in making decisions.
The other aspect is a financial one. I did not address this in my speech, but I will make a comment on the 106,000 letters sent out last fall to people with disabilities who qualified for the tax credit, asking them to reapply so that it could be ascertained whether or not they did qualify.
A number of them did not reply to the letter, figuring it did not make any sense, because they had already provided all the information. These people lost their tax credit.
Among those who responded to the government's request, a number also lost their tax credit. In the end, one person out of every two among the 106,000 contacted lost their credit. That is a substantial number. In Quebec, for example, some 90,000 persons with disabilities—I am quoting this figure from memory—were entitled to the tax credit for 2000. This credit is worth a maximum of $960. Let us say $1,000 to make it a round figure. We are talking about $90 million.
Is that too high a price to pay to recognize the plight of persons with disabilities? Only for heartless people obsessed with squeezing the taxpayer in order to come up with money to spend elsewhere, on more appealing things, as the Liberal government is doing, and I find that deeply regrettable.