Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Parkdale—High Park for her compliment on my speech. Of course, I want to return the compliment on the excellent work she does as our finance critic.
I know the member is as disappointed as I am to see the party on the other side, which came here dedicated to accountability vote against our leader's private member's bill that would have given full independence to the parliamentary budget officer so that we could actually get at the facts. Rather than stand here in the House and debate numbers that are uncertain in many ways, with one side saying what they really are and the other side saying they do not like it, the parliamentary budget officer, as an officer of Parliament, would provide that to all of us. We could then get down to debating the reality.
The other thing I would say is that we try to be very consistent on this side in saying that we do not oppose spending money on law enforcement. We think it is much better to spend it there than on lengthy imprisonment or mandatory minimum sentences. Let us spend at the front end on enforcement where we would actually build safer communities and increase the security of all of our citizens instead of just spending the money at the back end of the process by putting more people in jail for longer periods of time.