Madam Speaker, I listened very attentively to the hon. member when he was talking about surpluses.The first thing that came to my mind, if my memory serves me correctly, is that the hon. member was twice a member under the Brian Mulroney administration that had, believe it or not, nine consecutive budgets that not only were in deficit but did not even balance with the deficit that the Conservatives had predicted they would make. In other words, not only did the budgets not balance, not only were the Conservatives short of money, but they were even short compared to that which they said they would do. That is the kind of expertise of the Mulroney government. I was a little shocked to hear the hon. member for Niagara Falls talk about what to do with a surplus, given the experience that he lived some years ago.
I want to ask him if he recalls, as I do, that more than half of the accumulated debt of Canada was generated under the prime ministership of one man, Brian Mulroney. Who was a member of Brian Mulroney's caucus? The hon. member for Niagara Falls.
I say to the member that he is on rather thin ice in saying that according to him, the present Minister of Finance is not able to predict finances correctly. Since 1996 we have had nothing else but balanced budgets under the leadership of the present Prime Minister when he was minister of finance, as well as his two successors.
I would ask the member to respond to two things
He referred to the CAIS program. I agree with him that the Minister of Finance is quite right in wanting these premiums eliminated. Does the member not know that it is federal-provincial? Of course the other component of the federal-provincial, namely the provincial, has to agree with it. That is the first proposition.
The other one is on the defence budget where he said that the major procurement will be three years from now. Surely the member will recall that when we purchase equipment like helicopters, ships or airplanes, that is how long the delivery time is. We cannot order them retroactively. We do not buy these things as if they were sitting on a used car lot. They have to be designed. They have to be built. We have to obtain them. We have to get delivery and we do not get that next week. It is not the same as ordering a new Chevrolet Cavalier.