Mr. Speaker, 15 days before the start of the November 2000 election campaign, the federal government announced that it would be mailing out compensation to people for the increase in heating costs. At that time, we could already see that this was a poorly directed measure and only a ploy for buying votes.
Will the federal government, which has just announced that it will not be recovering the money that was wrongly paid out to people who were not entitled, $500 million, acknowledge that only a government that is uncaring and irresponsible, one that is taking advantage of a heavy fiscal imbalance, can afford to let $500 million just disappear into the woodwork in this way, without making any effort to get it back?