Mr. Speaker, what my colleague from St. John's is referring to are priority needs. Let us be frank about this money and where and how it will be spent. I do not feel it is consistent with those priority needs that the member enunciated.
I do not think that money will be spent in the area of pharmacare, increasing educational standards in the country or on basic things like increasing the CHST transfers that so clearly have to be addressed because they impact on so many things in the everyday lives of Canadians.
It is with sadness that I cannot in any fashion equate what this department is asking for in terms of its increase with the priorities of Canadians. I do not see how it jibes. I do not see how we can possibly support this increase in spending nor do I think that the Prime Minister is even remotely connected or understands where those priorities are, given his behaviour in office during the past nine years.