Madam Speaker, while it sounds good here in Ottawa to have secretariats for every issue, what really matters to people is knowing if there will be support when they need it, even in the rural areas. I have never had a constituent raise that secretariat with me, which I think says that obviously it was not providing value for anyone, other than bureaucrats here in Ottawa.
Again, unlike the previous Liberals in the 1990s, who in order to balance their budget actually cut health care spending, who actually cut transfers to the provinces, all so that they could say that they were going to save the country's finances. Eventually, they did turn the books around. However, when the member criticizes us for simply reviewing program spending and asking to see if it brings value for dollars, if people in my riding cannot even name what it is, chances are they do not see much value in it.