Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the clerk, the analysts, and all the other employees of the House of Commons, including our assistants who helped us prepare this report and the dissenting report that I will now talk about.
Unfortunately, we will not support the majority report. The majority report gives license to the government to continue piling up unsustainable debt, to continue blocking key private sector investments that would create opportunity and jobs for people, to continue overtaxing our workers and entrepreneurs.
As an alternative, our dissenting report provides a way forward to unleash the power of free enterprise, so anyone who works hard can achieve his or her dreams. Our proposal puts forward a “pay as you go” model, whereby any government wishing to increase spending beyond what is already budgeted would have to reduce spending by an equal amount somewhere else, thus containing the size and cost of government. We would require the government to reduce two regulations for every new regulation it institutes.
We propose also to create a trust savings vehicle so oil and gas enterprises can set aside dollars for the future decommissioning and environmental remediation of their sites, so we do not end up with thousands of untreated and un-remediated oil and gas wells in the future.
In this dissenting report, we have real proposals to get the government to live within its means, leave more in people's pockets and let them get ahead. Our purpose, again, is to unleash the incredible and unmatched power of the free enterprise system so anyone who works hard can achieve his or her dreams.