Mr. Speaker, I too have very great respect for my colleague. However, he is also advancing an opinion based on false premises.
First, Bill C-48 had some unbelievable weaknesses. It did not even oblige the government to move on its promises.
Even if we had voted in favour of this bill and even if it had passed and received royal assent, it would still be true that the NDPers were conned like amateurs. There was a line in all these commitments—to international assistance, to social housing and to post-secondary education—saying that the expected surpluses over the course of the year would have to exceed $2 billion. It is easy to fiddle with the expected surpluses to circumvent a fiscal year and avoid having to fulfill one’s promises.
In addition, under Bill C-48, the scheduled amounts were only invested if the government did not have any other priority. The NDP was conned, therefore, like a school kid. I have a lot of respect for schoolchildren, of course. But that does not change the fact that the NDP was had.
In the budget today, on the other hand, we find approximately the same amounts as in Bill C-48, except that this time they are invested. Does the NDP really want to abandon post-secondary students now and abandon the colleges and universities that are applauding this billion dollars? The NDP would be bringing down the government because it no longer believes its own positions from last year.
Are we also to understand that the NDP is opposed to the most disadvantaged people because it voted against the $800 million invested in social housing? All the stakeholder groups are happy to have at least this $800 million, while waiting for the $2 billion that is supposed to be invested annually.
Are we to understand today that the NDP no longer believes in international assistance? Just a second. Last year the NDP abandoned the unemployed and this year it is abandoning students and poor people. I ask my dear colleague at least to be consistent.