Mr. Speaker, the member who spoke just before me on the Liberal side of the House mentioned in his speech on the budget that graduates from his area were going south and jobs were going south. That disturbed him quite a lot. He speculated on the reasons that is happening. It is very obvious why it is happening. There are more jobs in the United States and the taxes are lower. Those things are linked together. Where the taxes are lower, the jobs appear.
In my riding of North Vancouver, which is close to the border with the United States, a whole slew of businesses, thousands of small businesses, have moved across the border into the Bellingham area to operate in the United States where there is a lower tax regime.
Canadian businesses have produced jobs in the United States for U.S. citizens. It happens because of lower taxes. Even when we take into account paying for medical care it is still cheaper to work in Washington State than it is in the province of B.C. It is very clear that is the main reason graduates are going south.
The member also mentioned interest rates, which is something a lot of other Liberals mentioned today. He claimed credit for low interest rates. They must think that the people of Canada have no long term memory at all. Prior to the last election the Liberal Party opposed the policies of the Bank of Canada and the federal reserve in the United States which have led to the low interest rate situation.
Because of the need to beat inflation, which was destroying our economy, the federal reserve and the Bank of Canada took the position they did. The Liberals spoke out strongly against the Bank of Canada. They did not approve the policy at all.
It is just amazing. They did not want NAFTA, which has now produced tremendous export markets for Canada. They did not want the interest rates scenario of the Bank of Canada. Suddenly the Liberals want to take credit for all the things that have been beneficial. It is absolutely amazing.
It is Liberal, Tory, same old story. They really have always been in bed together. They still are. Nothing would suit them better than to have the Tories back in the House because everything would tick
along quite nicely. They would pass the same legislation together. They would have a great time.
During question period today one of our members rose to question the finance minister. He could not even rise to answer questions. We must be getting to them if the finance minister is perhaps incapable of rising and answering questions about the figures and about why government departments have not met the targets set in the budget. Departmental spending has been exceeded by the various departments.
I realize I cannot use props but I will describe an example I have with me today. It is quite a large package of papers about 1.5 times the size of a package of copy paper used for copying machines. About 650 pages of material arrived on my desk.