Madam Speaker, the investment in the bill, above all else, must be affordable. The government will not go into the red. It will not take our economy and the federal government expenditures into the dark old days of deficit spending. We recognize that it is irresponsible and it is destructive to the economy.
I will give my hon. colleague a few examples of what the bill would do. It would make an investment in the South Fraser Perimeter Road, the North Portal grade separation, the Pitt River Bridge-Mary Hill Interchange and the Deltaport grade separations. That is just part of this bill, but it does not end the productivity agenda.
In order to do what the hon. member suggested, which is what we want to do in terms of improving productivity, we have ensured that we have the one-third, one-third, one-third plan for surpluses beyond $3 billion: tax reduction, which I know he will support; critical investment into needs such as this; and debt reduction.
Therefore the debt reduction, the tax reduction and critical expenditures are all part of what we are doing with productivity. We are also continually trying to remove the barriers to trade internally and externally. We also want to work with the provinces to give them the resources to ensure we are meeting the trades deficits and school deficits that we like every other western country have.
It is a comprehensive package. This is only one part of it but it has to be seen in total with the other initiatives that the government has put forward.