The Parliamentary Budget Officer changed his assumptions with respect to economic growth. In August 2010, just a few months ago, he said I was being too pessimistic with respect to when we could balance the budget. He said we could probably do it earlier than 2015-16. More recently, he put out another estimate in which he changed all his economic assumptions. Of course, if you assume lower economic growth, then you push out balancing the budget longer. I think our assumptions with respect to economic growth, based as they are on the advice of 15 private sector economists in Canada who do not agree with the Parliamentary Budget Officer--and which we have discounted down for a risk adjustment--are much more realistic. I rely on those assessments and not his.
On November 23rd, 2010. See this statement in context.