Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise today to speak on Bill C-28, the budget implementation act. Mind you, it is not with pleasure that I review the substance of the bill, because the budget is a return to the 1970s Liberal free-spending habits that have imperilled Canada's economic prosperity.
Instead of having a vision for the future, the government is wandering aimlessly with no vision whatsoever. The last time Canada witnessed program spending growth like we have today in this budget, the current Prime Minister was the minister of finance. This budget, and by extension the budget implementation act, can be characterized by one phrase: an irresponsible increase and commensurate growth in program spending.
The fact is that since 1998 we have seen growth in program spending that did not always reflect the priorities of Canadians, but this is the first year in which we have seen such a dramatic increase in program spending.
That said, some increases are badly required and desperately needed. Nobody disagrees with the notion that we want to see a greater level of investment in health care and in the military. Nobody would disagree with that. Health care and the military clearly represent the priorities of Canadians, but if we look at the budget implementation act and take the health care reinvestment portion and the military reinvestment portion out of the increase in spending, the fact is that there is a 7.3% increase in government program spending in the budget net of health care and the military.
The Prime Minister should have warned the Minister of Finance not to make the same mistakes he made when he was finance minister back in the 1970s: to simply say no to this kind of Liberal waste. But then again, we have to ask why the Prime Minister would worry about leaving the cupboard bare, because he is leaving soon so he does not really care all that much about it.
Why would the Prime Minister worry about being fiscally responsible when his government has been party to so many financial mismanagement scandals and deliberate cover-ups in this country? Let us look at them for a moment: Shawinigate, the sponsorship boondoggle and the HRDC fiasco, and they go on and on.