Human Resources committee  Part of what's transpired in the Greater Moncton Area consists of two things, really. Infrastructure was brought into place in terms of telecommunications and that really allowed this city and this region to move forward. It was predominantly driven by investments from the telecommunications companies that more or less had a monopoly at the time.

Human Resources committee  First of all, you need to know that I believe in miracles. Therefore, I'm praying for a conversion away from supply-side economics. I don't expect that's going to happen.

Human Resources committee  It is, isn't it? One of the questions is, how do you eat an elephant? The answer, of course, is “one bite at a time”. You talk about the significant increases in a variety of areas. How much was taken out of the economy, out of the federal revenue income, by the two-point decrease in HST?

Human Resources committee  Oh, I heard your question.

Human Resources committee  That's really a point to be negotiated with the provinces, isn't it? That's not within my bounds. What is within my bounds is to say as a citizen, “What is the priority is in terms of dealing with issues within this nation?” It's not how a program is executed between the federal and provincial governments.

Human Resources committee  One of the first things is to move the question from “who has their finger up in the air?” to the reality for some of our western friends who have seen the wind. It's really quite a nebulous sort of thing, isn't it? Really, part of what has happened is that with 17-second responses to questions, you can't really develop any kind of momentum towards moving the country forward in terms of dealing with these issues.

Human Resources committee  I tend to side with Oliver Wendell Holmes: I don't mind paying taxes because with them “I buy civilization”. The problem is that we've moved to a culture in which there is a focus just on tax cuts and the elimination of government services. Unless political leaders start talking about and bringing forward other voices, voices other than those interests that radically profess that the supply side is going to be the salvation for all of us, then no, there is no hope, not unless politicians do that.

Human Resources committee  I want to thank the committee very much. Looking at your biographies online, I can see that you folks represent a tremendous amount in terms of what you've done in the communities. Obviously, that's why you've been elected by people like me: to serve our nation. As a United Church minister, I should probably begin by asking for a moment of silence for the Vancouver Canucks, but we'll move on from there.