Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton--Sherwood Park for his comments. He brings to the House considerable expertise, as was evident in his comments. I do not want to see that expertise wasted. I would like to take advantage of that expertise through my questions for him.
Notwithstanding the incredible waste of taxpayers' dollars that has occurred under this administration, I do not want to focus on that. I find it unfortunate and distasteful but it is not the focus of my question.
We know the government has claimed that its ability is very significant in terms of money management. It makes that claim repeatedly by saying that it has run surplus budgets for some time. We also know, in rough numbers, that the Liberal government inherited a debt created largely during the years of Pierre Trudeau and the previous prime minister, years of incredible overspending, which of course now the Liberals have has repeated in the last several years. The Liberals do not appear to have learned from the past. We know that.
We know the Liberals inherited a debt, we know that it continued to rise under their management, and we know that it has now dropped somewhat, to a level of approximately $60 billion less than what it was over a decade ago.
Where did the $60 billion come from? Notwithstanding the fact that much more money could have been applied to the debt if the Liberals had not wasted it on gun registries, foolishness, papering the bedroom walls of their friends and paying for lavish expenditures and trips such as those André Ouellet has enjoyed at the expense of the taxpayer, without receipts, notwithstanding any of that, they paid it down, they claim, by $60 billion. But what did they do with the EI surplus?
Forty-five billion dollars more was taken in by the government from working Canadians under employment insurance than was paid back in benefits to the workers of this country. There was $45 billion more taken out of the pockets of small business people, the major employers in this country, $45 billion more than was paid out in benefits. It was taken in by the government and it was not put in a reserve. The government did not set it aside. No. It is gone. It has vanished.
Where did the $45 billion go? Maybe it went against the debt. I am not sure. Maybe it went to André Ouellet. Maybe it went to worldwide travel. Maybe it went to the gun registry. We do not know. We are not sure. Maybe it went to jets for the Prime Minister. I do not know.
But I do know this. I do know that the government's claims of incredible money management are grossly overinflated. I would like the member to clarify for me if he feels that the employment insurance program could have been run more honestly and more transparently rather than used as a cash cow for the government.