It was $5 billion a year. In the ensuing Liberal 13-year administration, the Liberals slashed it by 50% down to $2.5 billion a year.
The hon. member might not want to admit it, but this year our foreign aid is back up to $5 billion a year, and we have untied it to make it more effective than it has ever been in the history of this Parliament.
I also find it very unsettling that the hon. member could talk about the Conservatives trying to make cuts. We are not making any cuts, and we are certainly not making them on the backs of the poor and those who can least afford it, unlike the former Chrétien Liberals. When they came to power to balance the budget, former finance minister Paul Martin slashed $25 billion from health care and social transfers to the provinces. That was done on the backs of the poor and the infirm. Does that sound familiar? He remembers that. I remember that. We will not take any lessons from that member, who was a part of that government and voted for every one of those nasty cuts that the former Liberal government introduced to balance the books on the backs of the poor and the infirm.
I would be embarrassed if I were the hon. member, standing up making the comments he did, given the record he has to stand up for, the record of slash and cut to the poor and the infirm, those who needed health care and those who needed help under the social transfers. We will take no lessons from the Liberals and that is for sure.