Discussion · Government Orders
Frank Caputo Conservative
“The government wastes money and drives up the deficit. For example, it is spending 5 million dollars on outside lawyers for a new jail, even though the government already employs its own lawyers.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The hon. member talks about subsidies and things like that. In a lot of ways, he is talking about government spending. We may not always agree, but I think one place we may agree, and we may part company in some regard on this point, is on the nature of government spending. We constantly hear the Liberals stand up and ask where we would cut. I do not know. Maybe we would cut the consultants. I was looking at a plan, a budget, for a jail that is being built. The government budgeted $5 million for lawyers, external counsel. Five million does not sound like much, but it is a lot of money. In this country, we have something called the Department of Justice. Do members know who it employs? It employs lawyers. Why are we spending $5 million on lawyers when we have government lawyers? I was a government lawyer. This is where we are spending our money. This is why we are in a massive deficit. We are not even looking after the pennies or the dollars, the hundreds of millions of dollars. It all just goes into a big pool, and we are told that we have never had it so good.”
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The hon. member talks about subsidies and things like that. In a lot of ways, he is talking about government spending. We may not always agree, but I think one place we may agree, and we may part company in some regard on this point, is on the nature of government spending. We constantly hear the Liberals stand up and ask where we would cut. I do not know. Maybe we would cut the consultants. I was looking at a plan, a budget, for a jail that is being built. The government budgeted $5 million for lawyers, external counsel. Five million does not sound like much, but it is a lot of money. In this country, we have something called the Department of Justice. Do members know who it employs? It employs lawyers. Why are we spending $5 million on lawyers when we have government lawyers? I was a government lawyer. This is where we are spending our money. This is why we are in a massive deficit. We are not even looking after the pennies or the dollars, the hundreds of millions of dollars. It all just goes into a big pool, and we are told that we have never had it so good.