Mr. Speaker, since the budget, Canadian economic growth forecasts have been lowered by the Bank of Canada, the IMF and the OECD. In fact, the IMF is about to lower its forecast again, yet the finance minister refuses to even acknowledge the downward trend.
Why would a finance minister choose to remain deliberately ignorant of an economic downturn? Why will he not revise his growth forecasts?
The reason is simple. According to page 214 of the budget, if GDP growth slows to 1.2%, he will be running a deficit next year.
The shame of being the Conservative finance minister who ended a decade of Liberal balanced budgets is too much for him to bear. Instead, he will do everything in his power to hide these facts, just like he did in 2003 when he sat at the Ontario government's cabinet table as its members conspired to hide a massive $5.6 billion deficit from voters.
He will not revise his numbers and now Canadians know why.