Mr. Speaker, on the whole issue of investment in the auto industry, we know that thousands of jobs are created as a result of a successful auto industry. Canada, and Ontario in particular, is well positioned when it comes to the auto industry. In the whole realm of things, taking $17 million of the $60 million in the GST cut and matching Ontario's commitment is not a huge amount of money.
We all want to see tax cuts, but the reality is that someone has to pay for the different services that are required.
Just to give an example of what we are talking about when we are talking about priorities in investing, whether or not it is the $17 million in the auto sector, when the current finance minister was the finance minister in the Mike Harris government, in the 2001-02 fiscal year he cut $603 million from hospital care. A hospital in my riding was forced to close because it did not have the funds to carry through. Schools were closed. All of this happened because corporate taxes were being cut so that there would be more money to invest in other things.
There was $154 million cut from social assistance. There was $309 million cut from post-secondary education. There was $583 million cut from housing. That was simply in a one year budget in the province of Ontario.
All of us want tax cuts, but there has to be a certain amount of money there to provide the services that are required for our country. When we are reinvesting those dollars into things like the auto industry or post-secondary education to make sure that our kids are getting a good education, all of those are investments in the people of Ontario or the people of Canada.