Well, Madam Chair, I’ve been elected to not necessarily bang my head against the wall, but I have to try until I’m no longer in this position.
The Minister says no, we’re just going to keep doing this. That’s just not good enough. We’re struggling to get an increase in our debt limit and I guarantee that this investment would pay back big time, pay back periods of whatever, five to eight years. How long have we been doing this? We know this is going to continue until we’re completely out of federal dollars, 2034 or ‘37, whatever it is, and how long have we been doing this? This just makes sense to invest these dollars into enjoying these gains and reducing our cost of living for our people.
So I just don’t accept that argument, and meanwhile we talk about taking on big new projects that are incredibly expensive, hundreds of millions of dollars with extremely modest returns, if any. The returns are conditional on other big things happening that are not going to happen, or little evidence that they’re going to happen. So I will be watching to see what we do at the end of this fiscal year and the beginning of the next. I think this is an improper use of funds and it’s our responsibility if we don’t take advantage of these opportunities. Thank you.