Mr. Speaker, in fact it is not just déjà vu, it is déjà vu all over again. I remember in the fall of 2008 when the Minister of Finance presented the budget. In order to balance his budget, theoretically at least, with $100 million rounding error of a surplus, he pledged to sell $11 billion worth of government assets.
We kept asking, day after day, for a list of those assets. In fact, there was no list of those assets because there was no plan to sell assets. That was never realized because the Conservatives never intended to do it in the first place. This is very similar to their expenditure review process. Once again, there is no plan.
What I am concerned about, and I expect the hon. member shares my concern, is the Conservative cuts will be ideological. They will not be based on evidence. They will be cutting programs they do not like for ideological reasons in order to preserve ones they like. And they will not be cutting the fat, but they could cut into bone and sinew and muscle with regard to a good government's capacity to help real Canadians.
I have one last point. The government could be working with provincial governments on a shared service agenda to work together to cut the administrative costs of government. That would be part of a good, constructive federal-provincial discussion on how they could work together to cut the cost of government and to respect hard-earned tax dollars from Canadians.