Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his eloquent speech. I agree with him that this bill and this strategy that the Liberal government is putting forward to this place does not help the low-income Canadians who need it the most. I will certainly grant him that point. I wish the priorities of the Liberals were different on that front.
The NDP and the member have said they will be supporting this measure. To bring it to committee means that it will have a good examination, and the NDP may decide not to support it later. What I am concerned about is that this measure will cause a deficit of $1.2 billion or more, because it is not revenue neutral as the Liberals originally proposed it would be.
Does the member not see, though, that if we continue to put forward things that would put us into a deficit position, many of the programs and supports that the member is calling for that would help low-income Canadians would inevitably be put under pressure, to the point where we may revisit the 1990s, when the Liberal government at the time cut transfers to the provinces, particularly around health care, in order to pay the bills?