Mr. Speaker, it was just terrific to hear someone call a junior minister on some of his past record. It is very interesting to see anyone who is a Liberal, not exactly fiscally responsible to be sure, have the opinion that this is just a relative thing. That is just ridiculous.
A young fellow has gone back to school to try and better himself. We all did that, took out student loans and worked at part time jobs. All of us in the House should pay tribute to people who as adults go back to school. There are some in the House. They need to be celebrated and appreciated. The House of Commons should acknowledge that it is a brave thing to do. Many of these people have young families. They scrimp and save and manage to get by. To then turn around and have it slapped out of them does not exactly serve as an incentive for anyone.
Beyond that, with respect to employment insurance, municipalities are putting out enormous amounts of money, sending a one-way cheque to Ottawa. They might as well throw it in a big black hole. It is interesting to see the spin put on it by the government's communications experts.
We look at these things in terms of absolute billions of dollars that are being spent. I think for instance of when we put the budget through and we look at ways and means. We just swoop $50 billion here and $20 billion there through the House in a matter of moments.
I would like the member to comment on how the government thinks it is responsible to send amazing amounts of money through the House without even so much as a by your leave or even a few minutes to deal with it in committee of the whole. In terms of democracy, spending enormous amounts of money and trying to be responsible with it, does the member think it would be wise for us to at least have some pretty serious comment on this rather than just the hoopla that goes on when we pass billions and billions of dollars through the House?