Mr. Speaker, first, in terms of the accelerated capital cost allowance, I agree that having accelerated the capital allowance makes sense, in light of the decline of the American dollar, to encourage Canadian manufacturers to invest in productivity enhancement and to build competitiveness during a difficult time. That is why I believe the government ought to have made it a permanent as opposed to a two year program.
The difficulty with having it as a two year program is we force manufacturers, which make these kinds of massive capital investment decisions over the long term, to accelerate their decision making and their purchases to a two year period, which is a very short period. This is not sensible. It is not good business. That is why Canadian manufacturers are looking for a permanent, or at least a five year, accelerated capital cost allowance.
Second, the member boasted about the government's $1 billion program for communities, which was brought forward several weeks ago. The fact is that $1 billion program was brought forward to replace a $1.5 billion Liberal program that the Conservative government killed—