Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague, the member for Burlington, who sits on the finance committee. I appreciated all of his participation in the committee over the last number of months as well.
In the context of the issue of spending, I think the theory is that if we spend more we will make more. No, I do not agree with that. I do not think anybody who came to the committee agreed with that.
In fact, the opposite was said. People said that when the government keeps spending on things like tax breaks for corporations they do not necessarily see the benefit. Over and over, people reported to us that over the last number of years we have seen millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporations and that has not resulted in increased investment.
In fact, the contrary has happened. Investment has declined as tax breaks have grown and profits have risen. Over and over again, those who thought this through said that if we are going to do anything in terms of more public spending in the form of tax breaks, then we have to apply a cost benefit analysis.
I found it very interesting to go to some of the big business folks around our table, especially the business tax reform group, and ask them if they did not think there should be some sort of a cost benefit analysis in terms of more tax breaks. Do members know what the answer was? It was no. It was a simple no, in that they said no, they do not need any accountability, and no, there does not need to be any kind of transparency, and we just need to take from the public purse and take, take, take and never give, give, give.
That is what we object to. Public spending in certain strategic areas can produce jobs, create good working conditions, deal with some very difficult social and environmental issues and actually build a better society while bringing down the debt.
Finally, let me answer the question about debt, because in fact the member and others on those benches like to present the myth that the NDP does not believe in paying down the debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have always said that a portion of our surplus should go against the debt. We have recommended that it be decided by Parliament, something that the Conservatives used to support when they were in opposition, but not now, and we recommend that there at least be--