Mr. Speaker, I find it a bit ironic to hear my colleague speak to this bill, which deals with the allocation of surpluses, and to hear him talk about paying down the debt because, in the final analysis, the Liberal Party has been in office for 49 of the last 60 years.
The Liberal Party created the debt. I agree with the member that the Conservatives increased it, but it had been created by the Liberal Party. How was the deficit eliminated? Since 1993, it has been done at the expense of the provinces. When the Prime Minister was Minister of Finance, he decided to eliminate the deficit and to reduce the debt at the expense of the provinces.
Today, the federal government is no longer willing to give money to the provinces. Let us not forget that, in 1993, it started to reduce reinvestments. In 1997-98, investments in the health care system reached their lowest level in Canadian history, thanks to the Liberal Party. We are clawing our way back up in terms of investments, but in the meantime the provinces have become poorer. Now that we have money, we are being told that it is going to be used to pay down the debt and that the provinces will not see a penny of that money.