Ralph Goodale

[Transfer payments, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that assertion is obviously the hon. gentleman's speculation. As I said in my previous answer, the arithmetic so far would indicate that we are on track with the forecast. What the hon. gentleman is not taking into account are the commitments we made on health care, the commitments we made on equalization, the commitments we made on a whole range of other transfers to the provinces which are not yet booked and come out of the arithmetic that he has referred to.

[Transfer payments, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman is obviously quoting incomplete figures for the past fiscal year. We will have to wait until the end of the fiscal year to see what the final arithmetic is, but all indications are that the numbers are on track with those which I forecast in the budget.

I would point out that in the course of the last number of years, our major transfers to Quebec have been increasing: in 2002-03, $11.8 billion; 2003-04, $12.4 billion; 2004-05, $13.8 billion; 2005-06, $15.5 billion. We are moving in the right direction.

[Natural Resources, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman's party has indicated that they support the tax agenda that the government has laid out. They have indicated that they support the government on the cities agenda and on the child care agenda. They obviously support the government on the provisions with respect to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

The simple remedy for all of this is for members of the official opposition to do what they said they would do initially on February 23 and that is to support the budget.

[Natural Resources, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the opposition--

[The Budget, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, in the areas of new or reprofiled spending in relation to learning, the environment, housing, foreign aid, all of those have been identified as priorities of this government either in the budget, the throne speech or in the campaign platform. We will make those investments consistent with our own jurisdiction.

[The Budget, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, we are not jeopardizing the job creation record of the government. I am very pleased to tell the hon. member that we have in fact the best job creation record of any country in the G-7. That is because of the fiscal policies of the government and that is the record we are going to maintain.

[The Budget, May 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, there is no risk of deficit. The budget of February 23 was moving very well through this House of Commons until 11 days ago.

Eleven days ago the Leader of the Opposition indicated that he was withdrawing his support for the government and for the budget. He was joining hands with the Bloc Québécois to defeat the government and to defeat the budget.

This government wanted to make Parliament work. Canadians elected a minority Parliament. We were determined to make it work and therefore we formed an arrangement which will respect the fiscal fundamentals and advance the priorities of Canadians.

[Committees of the House, April 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman said that if we went through Hansard and looked up the word “education”, or the words “Coast Guard”, or the word “agriculture”, or the word “offshore”, we would see those words were uttered most often by members of the opposition. That would be an interesting academic exercise in word processing, but I would submit that the hon. gentleman has missed the point.

Is it more important to count the words or to count the dollars, the cold, hard dollars that are in the budget for innovation, skills learning, the Coast Guard, agriculture and offshore? Beyond the words, we put our money where our mouth is.

[Committees of the House, April 22nd, 2005]

Nonsense.

[Committees of the House, April 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the government wants Canadians to be in a position to make a judgment on the political process and they will be able to do that with all the facts before them once Judge Gomery has been allowed to produce his report.

I would like to ask the hon. gentleman about his comments with respect to cities, communities and municipalities. I wonder what he would say to Mayor MacLean from Nova Scotia who is the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, or Mayor Campbell from Vancouver, or Mayor Fiacco from Regina, or Mayor Miller from Toronto, or Minister Sorbara from the province of Ontario, or Minister Audet from the province of Quebec, all of whom have said that the new deal for communities is welcome, that this is not just a new deal, it is a real deal. It is in the budget. It is before the House at this very moment.

Why, on behalf of all of those municipalities, will the opposition not allow it to happen?