Madam Speaker, herein lies the inescapable paradox for those who believe in the welfare state. They believe they can create jobs by taxing those who hire, that we can borrow our way out of debt or protect pensions by taxing the companies to pay into them.
Bill C-38 proposes to create the conditions for long-term growth in the economy of our country by allowing companies to invest, by protecting our environment, while at the same time saying that some of our social programs are going to cost more in the future, like OAS. How do we ensure the long-term sustainability of that? We do that by making changes now and by also ensuring that we continue to have that stream of revenue that is created by companies.
I really appreciate the question my colleague asked, because it speaks to fundamental economics. There is an opportunity cost to delivering programs through government, but we achieve that balance by investing in growth, by creating terms and conditions for growth and also by ensuring the government's books are balanced.