Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to listen to my colleague's thoughtful remarks.
To a certain extent in response to the last Conservative speaker, let us just illustrate what the government has been doing. There was $29.5 million spent on erecting 9,800 billboards in Canada. Not only that, but the Conservatives compelled the municipalities where those billboards were put up to spend the money out of the infrastructure proceeds they were receiving from the federal government, to be able to blame the municipalities. This is the kind of subterfuge that is surrounding the advertising choices being made by the government.
Surely my colleague would agree that $29 million, for example, would pay for 515 public health nurses for a year, would build 500 affordable housing units, or would pay for 15,000 chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients on waiting lists. That is exactly the kind of responsible spending we are looking for, which is why the suggestion here, as the member rightly points out, is to have a third party, an advertising commissioner inside the Auditor General's office, provide a perfectly reasonable, balanced and objective review.
Could the member help us understand what the alternative expenditures could be for this kind of wasteful advertising spending?