Income Tax Act  I would like to thank the hon. member for his speech and ask him a question in line with the small business comments which he made. He mentioned small business a number of times in his speech. I am from the riding of North Vancouver where there is a pretty high concentration of small businesses and quite a large number of home-based businesses.

Income Tax Act  This is after bank financing. The overall complaint, of course, is access to capital. Then it is paper burden and tax reform. In terms of government spending, I hear from small business that what we have to eliminate duplication and eliminate government waste. If a program is meeting a good public policy objective and we are getting value for the money, most people I talk to can understand that.

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I just have a few comments for the hon. minister and I would like his feedback on these comments. First, in terms of banks not lending to small business, I think it is understandable that they are not doing so as readily as one would expect them to. The reasons have been made clear to me in my constituency.

Income Tax Act  Flowthrough shares allow 100 per cent of the first $2 million of oil and gas development expenditures to be deducted by shareholders. That should certainly be supported by most of the Reform members. The removal of mandatory deduction of Canadian exploration expenses allows corporations carrying on a resource business to choose to deduct lower amounts of Canadian exploration expenses in order to utilize non-capital losses before they expire.

supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her comments. Each and every day that I sit in this Parliament as something new in my career, I find it very enjoyable that we can find common ground among many of the players in this House. I would like to thank the member for her comment.

supply  Mr. Speaker, you caught me unaware but certainly I have enjoyed the tone of this House today. We have been constructive in our debates. We have recognized that the Auditor General has a real role to play as our servant to ensure that the taxpayers' money is spent wisely and well.

supply  Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to participate in the debate on the motion put forward by my party. Hopefully it will bring the unresolved issues of the Auditor General's report to light. I would like to start by quoting from the report: "Today it is clear to both public servants and parliamentarians that Canadians expect them to demonstrate sound and prudent management rather than finding new ways to spend borrowed money".

supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his speech. One thing that I was rather puzzled about was when he started off by saying in his speech that the way in which we had written the motion was far too restrictive and then he finished up his speech by saying that we should focus on one particular area.

supply  They all agree on one thing: to eliminate the federal government's debt, the current political system needs to undergo major changes. The Canadian federal system has failed us and cannot be reformed, as all Quebecers have proved with Charlottetown. And that political situation is at the root of our public finance crisis. The dynamics and the gigantic proportions of the Canadian civil service are further examples of significant waste and loss of energy.

supply  Mr. Speaker, again in no way did I intend to imply that all regulations are bad. Of course there have to be regulations. What I was suggesting in my response a minute ago is the fact that very frequently people who are opposed to an approved project will find some other way of thwarting it by using regulations.

supply  I want to point out to the hon. member that we on the government side will be asking those very same questions of our ministers and will continue to. We want to assure members of the Reform Party and the citizens of this great nation that government members are responsible and interested in every government department and will continue to be.

supply  Mr. Speaker, my congratulations to the minister for some fine words. It is very obvious her heart is with Canada. I would like the minister to know that is where my heart is also. I am sure we could agree all day on that. I heard her mention something about the economic factors and the environmental factors, how they tie together and how they are so important.

supply  Mr. Speaker, there were a number of questions within the hon. member's response and I will try to remember them and answer them as I go. Certainly there has been great progress made within aboriginal communities in the directions he points out. I applaud those gains that we have made.

supply  The first issue is the one in our red book that deals with the inherent right to self-government, which means we recognize as non-natives that there were treaties signed and those treaties suggested that these were self-governing people before Europeans came. I would like to know whether the Reform Party agreed with that. My second point is if it agrees or disagrees, that not really being the issue, would he also be prepared to tell me, given a system that at present does not work for aboriginal people and for non-natives, and it has been agreed by both sides that that is the case, why he would not want to see a concept of self-government put in place?

supply  Mr. Speaker, certainly the member might have interpreted my presentation that because we cannot get one little definition of self-government we should do nothing. Our party and I have asked the minister and his government to define for us what in their opinion inherent right means.