Madam Speaker, I cannot believe what I have just heard. The member suggested that the former minister of finance has mismanaged, in the eyes of the hon. member, the state of the nation's affairs.
This is a finance minister who came in with a $42 billion debt. We have had five better surpluses in a row in terms of the books. In terms of the GDP, we have had 6% growth in the first quarter. We have the highest sales in housing starts and cars. Clearly Canada is the only G-7 country that is paying off its national debt.
The member talked about the heating rebate. People do die I would tell my hon. colleague and people do go to prison. It happens when sending out rebates without creating a whole new regime, which of course the hon. member would have been jumping up and down over, that in that time some people went to jail. We got the money back. People die. It happens. It is a fact of life.
We did copy I guess to some degree what the hon. gentleman did when he was the treasurer for Alberta. Alberta had a similar program and look what happened.
The hon. member talked about overpayments. We are now looking at the reports from the auditor general. We will be reviewing them and will make a prudent response in the public interest.
I do not know this and I am merely asking the hon. member as he was the treasurer for Alberta, is it not the policy of the provinces that if they overpay municipal governments they want it back and they get it back? It certainly is the policy in Ontario. In fact Ontario has done that repeatedly. I presume this may be the policy in Alberta.
I do not want to impugn the member in terms of when he was the treasurer but he might at least have some experience and I look forward to his comments in that regard.
Does he think it would be appropriate for us after having the report for only three days to make a rash decision when we have not been able to really look at all of the evidence that we have received?