There was some put into foundations. The situation has always been hard to grasp, a bit like a bar of slippery soap.
Now, for the spotty record I was talking about. Hon. members will see where I was heading. I have a whole thick collection of spots here—the sponsorship business.
However, before I get to that, the business of sponsorship and of blotches—the spots on the dalmatians, on the ministers and on the Treasury Board—I would just like to bring to the attention of the taxpayers that this government has indeed decreased its deficit and increased its revenues. It had to get the money from somewhere. It has also accumulated a surplus, but from where?
This government has always been good at making cuts that affect others, but not itself. With a snap of the fingers, it has sucked up $30 billion from the fund of government workers, to which it has never contributed a red cent.
However, in public service collective agreements, certain deductions were counted as part of the salaries. They went into the fund. Then, at a certain point in time, the decision was made to appropriate the surplus generated.
It also cut jobs in the public service. Overnight, it decreed that there were 15,000 too many public servants working for the Government of Canada. I remember the minister at the time, Marcel Massé, presented us with a project to cut 15,000 from Canada's public service. And 15,000 jobs were cut.
In the meantime, government spending still had not been cut, and was never cut, or not by much. The government built up its revenues. The economic turnaround resulted in increased revenues. This did not hurt anyone, quite the opposite.
However, the government never trimmed the fat from its operations. It kept on living the high life. And today, we have seen what happened to thousands of seniors who should have collected the guaranteed income supplement.