Mr. Speaker, the $68 billion that was paid back saved the Canadian taxpayer and, I would imagine, the Crown, somewhere between $3 billion and $4.5 billion annually.
The $8 billion projected that would be paid off in the fiscal year that ended at the end of March 2006 should generate, if a 5% rate of return is taken, about $400 billion in savings on servicing our debt as early as next year. That is the virtuous circle that our party has managed to create in this country in paying off debt, as opposed to the vicious cycle we were in where debt was accumulating faster than the government could handle it.
My colleague opposite should be very careful when he shouts things out because he comes from a government in Ontario that did exactly opposite of what should have been done. Instead, it reduced revenues and increased debt, which we will now have to pay for the rest of our lives.
I was trying to avoid partisanship in saying that the country has a responsibility for the next generation. Whether it be a Conservative government or a Liberal government, we have a responsibility toward our children and our grandchildren. I am saying that we have to be careful in taking a direction of not reducing our debt as fast as we can in a balanced approach. I am saying that the government is veering away from the approach that we had and which the country adopted of paying off debt, reducing taxes and at the same time increasing spending toward more reduction of taxes and more spending and less paying off debt.
We had a tripod balance there that worked. We had best be careful because if we do not reduce debt, the next time we have a recession it may hit us very hard and then we would be back into the vicious cycle of scenarios that we had for about 30 years until 1997-98.