Gasoline Prices  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Winnipeg North for giving me the opportunity to share this time with her. As we are all aware, gas prices are an issue of extreme importance right across the country. In Burnaby—New Westminster it is equally an issue of extreme importance.

Canada-U.S. Relations  Mr. Speaker, we have seen over the past decade lower standards of living and a lower quality of life for most Canadians. Most jobs created are now part time or temporary and the average Canadian worker has lost 60¢ an hour in real terms. While we have seen no progress on softwood lumber and BSE, now we find out that this government is prepared to make even greater concessions to the Bush administration through its backroom deep integration talks.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member just gave his voice to the House of Commons. I think there is a bit of a contradiction there. I think it is important to note the past irresponsibility of the Conservatives and the fiscal record we saw under Mulroney. We saw the social deficit under the Liberals and that is what the NDP is trying to correct, but under Mulroney we saw record financial deficits at the federal level.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, we will not really know. I do not think the Conservative members even know what the public says. As we know, a few weeks ago the leader of the Conservatives would not let the members of his party talk about what the public reaction was in their ridings to a possible election.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to speak about this important document because the NDP's balanced budget document brings hope to Canadians. Over the past 10 years the number of homeless has been growing in the cities across the country. We have seen the growing number of poor children.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to share my time with the author of this document, the NDP budget.

Air-India Flight 182  Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the New Democratic Party of Canada, our leader, the member for Toronto—Danforth, and members of the caucus to join with our colleagues in the House of Commons in remembering the Canadian tragedy that took place 20 years ago today off the coast of Ireland.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I found it difficult to follow the very circular argumentation of the member and his colleague, the member for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam who said, “Wait, it will make sense eventually”. Unfortunately, I waited until the end and it never made sense. It never made sense that the hon. member was questioning his colleagues when he said that voting for Bill C-43 was akin to voting for Bill C-38, which means that not only was he condemning Liberal members of the House but he was also condemning his own colleagues who voted for Bill C-43.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate, as do my NDP colleagues, the hon. member's support for the NDP's better balanced budget that we are pushing through the House. He understands fully that the NDP's better balanced budget actually responds to a whole variety of issues that have not been dealt with for years.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Ottawa—Orléans for his support for the NDP budget. I want to continue in the same vein as the questions he was just asked. We know that some organizations in Quebec fully support the NDP budget, organizations such as FRAPRU, environmental organizations and those working on behalf of the poor or disabled.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to hear the member for Medicine Hat talk about corruption, when we know that when in government, his party under Mulroney had the worst record of corruption seen until this day. If he doubts that, he should read On the Take: Crime, Greed and Corruption in the Mulroney Years by Stevie Cameron.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I quite liked the hon. member's speech. I thought it was significant that he addressed issues the NDP has been working on since it arrived in this Parliament. We have worked on getting more resources for housing. We know there is a growing number of poor families, poor children, and homeless people in Canada.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the hon. member's speech, particularly the portion around British Columbia. As the hon. well knows now, two-thirds of his federal riding are now represented by B.C. NDP MLAs. The reason why is very clear. It is because the Gordon Campbell Liberals in B.C. have the largest deficits in British Columbian history and the NDP balanced the books in B.C.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  That you wanted to give to the corporate sector. You just wanted to shovel it off the back of a truck.

An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments  Madam Speaker, I was interested in the comments of the hon. member opposite, particularly given the Conservative track record on management of financial affairs. Let us look at the Mulroney Conservative government of the 1980s and 1990s. We had record deficits, as we know. We also know that in the last federal election campaign the Conservative Party presented the most expensive platform in Canadian political history.