Yes, priority spending. What is the priority of the government?
There obviously is no direct link between the problem and the money the government is willing to spend and to throw at it. I listened to my colleague from the Bloc talk about the distribution of tax dollars: that the provinces are not getting their fair share and are given the burden of providing health care and education, but the federal government takes all the tax dollars. I call it photo op politics.
It is quite clear to me that the governments that are closest to the people in delivering services are the provincial and municipal governments. The federal government is sort of on the far reaches, with foreign affairs, defence and whatnot, and does not get much exposure, so in order to get the credit for handing out money, with photo op politics and all their MPs handing out cheques, the government has to get into jurisdictions where it probably should not be and get into programs where it probably should not be so that it can be seen day to day as being active and participating. I would even say that it is close to buying votes.
These photo op politics have to stop. The government has to realize that there is a role for the federal government, that it is a limited role and that it should stick to that role. It should transfer the ability for provinces to raise more funds to pay for those things that are of provincial jurisdiction.
Other than spending more money without better management programs, the government has failed to give the Canadian taxpayer a break and to recognize that tax relief is what is going to stimulate an economy and will let us afford our health care and education systems that are so important to Canadians generally.