Mr. Speaker, the federal Liberal government, under the Prime Minister and the new Liberal leader, the former finance minister, the future prime minister, have sucked billions of dollars out of British Columbia in gas taxes and they have returned precious little to our communities of Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Mission. Of federal gas taxes, 2.4% goes back into roads. Imagine someone taking a dollar from us and giving us back 2¢. That is a rip-off.
If the Canadian Alliance policy were implemented, dedicating 3¢ to 5¢ a litre in gas taxes back to the provinces and municipalities, important improvements, such as the twinning of Highway 7, the Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge and Mission as well as the building of a new bridge from Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge in my riding to Langley across the Fraser River would already have been a reality.
The hon. member tells us that the dollars go into consolidated revenue and that they are wisely spent in priority areas. If that were true, we would applaud the government. Unfortunately, it has wasted billions of dollars. We are all aware of the billion dollar boondoggle, the advertising scandal, the dollars to the Prime Minister's friends in his riding and on and on it goes.
If there were dedicated dollars to infrastructure as we have laid out in our policy, that would be a positive thing. That is what we are asking the government to do. That is what Canadians want to see. The hon. member has no excuse for the fact that the government has only returned 2.4% of gas taxes back into roads across the country. That is just not acceptable.