Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, beginning on Saturday, Members of this House will be looking at the Business Plans for 1997/98. Over the past year many of us have stressed the need for an integrated approach to managing the budget.
It is not enough for departments to look at individual programs, we need to look at how these programs interact with other programs across the Government.
One area which is clearly tied to this idea of integration and which has not received any attention is the whole area of subsidies. After making queries in the standing committee meetings, it is apparent that, as a government, we do not have a comprehensive list of the many subsidies that we provide. As a government we do not know where all the subsidies are and more importantly how they are linked. The subsidies seem to be created by the Minister in an uncoordinated fashion. No one is looking at the big picture it would appear. It is quite possible that there is significant duplication, overlap, in these subsidies that we provide the individuals, communities and organizations.
However, unless we know what the subsidies are, we cannot find that out. This is an area we need to look at during our view of the Business Plans. Mr. Speaker, I have some preliminary work on a list of subsidies, at first glance, it would appear that we provide subsidies to the tune of about $200,000,000 a year. I intend to provide this list to all Members of this House and hope it is useful in providing at least, a starting point when looking at subsidies.
The second year of the Deficit Management Plan will be very difficult, if there is potential in subsidies to eliminate duplication or approve coordination of support we need to look at. Let us not leave this stone unturned because there is no official list to guide us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.