I want to congratulate you on your re-election, Mr. Speaker, as well as my hon. colleague on his re-election.
I want to thank the voters of Cardigan for finding a way to send me back here for the eighth time. It is indeed an honour to be in this place.
The government has indicated that it has done a number of things. It is going to spend $30 billion on untendered contracts for airplanes. It is going to spend $6 billion to give major corporations a break. It is going to spend billions of dollars on prisons. However, there are much smaller figures at which I hope the Minister of Finance and my hon. colleague will take a look.
The government took $64 million out of ACOA last year and will take $15 million out of ACOA this year. When the government takes $57 million out of fisheries that becomes not only an economic issue but a safety issue. I hope my hon. colleague will not stand up and respond to me about how much his government has done.
We must convince my hon. friend, the Minister of Finance, of the importance of these issues before a fisherman looses his life because we could not find the funding to dredge the harbour.