Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I was on tenterhooks waiting to find out if the Liberals were going to support the motion.
I understand that there are, perhaps, some hurt feelings, because the motion, as it reads, talks about how recent Liberal and Conservative governments have increased income inequality in Canada. My friend from the Liberal Party wants to debate whether that is a partisan attack or a statement of fact.
The statement of fact is that income inequality has increased dramatically under successive Liberal and Conservative governments. The member then went on in his speech to say that it was more the fault of the provinces, when the Liberals were in power, I suppose. It was not at all connected, in the Liberals' view, to the fact that the Liberal federal government cut transfer payments by as much as 40% to those same provinces. Maybe there is a connection. We argue that there is.
I am very glad that the member was declarative about the Liberals' support for the NDP motion to say that the $5-billion price tag to this income-splitting scheme would be unfair. We have heard from two Conservative speakers so far who have yet to declare the Conservative position on income splitting at all.
I wonder if my friend could add to the debate and speculate as to why my Conservative colleagues have such a hard time making their opinions known about whether this $5-billion scheme is supportable or not.