Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, another area that we will have to sooner or later face is the whole challenge of what do we do when we do find ourselves in a deficit situation?
In the 13th Assembly, they had to implement what they called a Deficit Elimination Act which was in place to ensure we were monitoring the expenditures of the government. In some cases, there were some radical things done where we were amalgamating different departments into one and also looking at getting rid of capital within the government, trying to streamline expenditures of the government.
I would like to ask the Minister, is there anything in place or anything that is being looked at to consider having such legislation in place through the Financial Administration Act to come through this House, to ensure that we do not have excessive spending, that there is legislation that the departments know they have to follow? We as a government have to assure the public we are doing something and we are taking action on the expenditures within the government, not with regard to public programs and services but the expenses of maintaining the bureaucracy of this government, which is an expense.
We have to eventually somehow find ways of not downsizing, but of controlling the growth within government. I think we have seen quite a bit of growth in the last number of years in the government from what it was in the 13th Assembly.
I would like to ask the Minister of Finance if they have considered looking at areas that we may have to consider, realizing that we are not immune to the deficit or the situation with regard to the downturn in the economy in Canada. We are going to be affected. I think that is something that we have to keep in mind, realizing that our deficit situation will be going up in the next couple of years. Has the Minister and his department considered those options or alternatives?