Well, I guess it came to what we said in our advice to this committee in the fiscal year before that surplus was run. Our focus would have been on social investments. I think there are many areas of expenditure, including training, infrastructure investment, where there's a direct sort of link between that investment and long-term growth and productivity. So my preference wouldn't have been to run a surplus of that size. That said, I wouldn't argue that there are no benefits from that. I mean, clearly, it does have some benefits moving forward in terms of the effect.
Evidence of meeting #21 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.