Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments made by the hon. member for Regina--Qu'Appelle. He would probably agree that at best the budget is nothing more than status quo and keeping the Liberal record as dismal as it has been in the past.
I have been here for nine years and this is the eighth budget. We know what happened to the other one that should have been presented. The budget is always full of wonderful rhetoric about the wonderful things the government will do. The Liberals have a Minister of Finance who is excellent in presenting a budget to the television land people who think it is wonderful.
We all know the budget is empty because the Liberals do not produce what they say they will do. The red books have not been up to snuff in accomplishing what they are supposed to be accomplishing, for example, scrapping the GST all through the years.
We now have a budget of all the things the opposition knows the government is not doing but that it could be doing. We know of the shortages in the security areas and the absolute zero help for farmers. We know about all these things.
Then all of a sudden the department of revenue is spending $50 million to hire 960 individuals to collect more taxes. More auditors are being hired to go after struggling businessmen and farmers that are having a tough time paying their taxes. The hon. member, as much as anybody else in the House, has to deal with situations of individuals being pressured by Revenue Canada to pay up.
The government is hiring an army of people to do this. It will cost $50 million. I find it totally inexcusable. I know the NDP is not really ashamed of taxes. I would like to hear what the member from the NDP would have to say about that.