Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member is mistaken. In 2002 the government on this side of the House was responsible for the largest reinvestment in the arts in the last 40 years: $550 million. It increased funding for the CBC, increasing acknowledgement of how important a role the CBC plays here.
If we talk about cuts that were made, let us not talk about cuts that were made 10 years ago. Those cuts were made in order to invest in the programs that we are investing in now because we dealt with the deficit. We started paying down the debt. All this talk about how we should take money that does not go into the debt and invest it in strategic infrastructure, we are doing all that.
However, by the very fact that we have been able to pay down a debt which, when I was first elected in 1997, cost us $42 billion in interest, I can only think of how many programs we could fund if we were to bring that into line. We must continue to pay down the debt so we can continue to invest in the programs that are important to my colleague across the way and to those on this side of the House.