Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to speak in favour of the motion and also address some of the concerns that the Minister of Finance has expressed. I think Mr. Patterson has addressed a number of them. Consultation is certainly one area that Members still want to be involved in, but I can't support an unfocused discussion, which this paper would lead to, on an issue as serious as this. It's incumbent on the government to provide the focus for our discussion by providing leadership and presenting the options. As ordinary Members, we don't have the inside knowledge of what's going on in the departments. So, if one Cabinet Minister should feel, for instance, that one area of responsibility isn't as important as some other and should be cut -- suppose someone were to say, let us cut all spending on parks -- how am I supposed to assess the impact on...(inaudible).
The Finance Minister said that the departmental officials could be here to answer questions. Madam Speaker, I don't think that it is right for us to make judgments of that nature based on oral testimony of the departmental officials before this House at the last minute. We are faced, again, with an important issue coming on the table at the last minute. If this was so important, why wasn't it brought in earlier? I don't think that anybody will fail to recognize that there is a great deal of pressure to end this session so that Members can get back home for Christmas. Bringing something in like this at the last minute doesn't leave us enough time to adequately discuss the issue. We are looking for not totally arbitrary decisions, we are looking for focused discussion.
We want the Minister to come back with an options paper that says, here is what we can do, here are the pros and the cons. Yes, we do want to discuss that. As has been said by the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, we are willing to act, in that committee, as the sounding board for some of those ideas. If the Minister is willing to take that sort of approach, we will be willing to listen in January. Madam Speaker, I would urge all Members to support this motion.