Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate those crocodile tears coming from the government side of the House.
The parliamentary secretary must know that with the support of this side of the House and all opposition parties there would be support if the government were to come forward with an additional expenditure of $23 million.
We all know that budgets are guidelines. We all know that there are extraordinary budget expenses. We all know this from a previous life. We all know that there are things here called supplementary estimates. We know there are ways of getting additional funds into additional budgets. We see it every day in every department.
Is the parliamentary secretary saying that the Minister of Veterans Affairs does not have the influence to get $23 million to correct what is seen as a terrible oversight, an injustice and a wrong? Is he saying that the government cannot come up with $23 million from departments that have expenditures of some hundreds of billions of dollars? Can the government not find $23 million to come forward and get the support of all opposition parties in this House to help support widows and widowers?
That is probably one of the most insignificant arguments I have ever heard in this House, to say, “It is simply a matter of money. We have done the best we can. There is no way we can do it”.
If that is the amount of fight in the Minister of Veterans Affairs, then I may have to take back some of the nice things I said about him. Frankly, if I were given 15 minutes on that side of the House, I could probably find $23 million to fix this injustice.