Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the minister and the officials for being here.
Minister, the state of the economy right now is very concerning to everybody. Your government caused the worst inflation we've seen in 40 years: $110 billion added to the national debt before COVID even started, and over half a trillion in the last two years, 40% of which wasn't even COVID-related.
When our leader, Pierre Poilievre, was warning your government that there was going to be inflation, you claimed that it would be deflation. As inflation was taking off, you claimed it would be transitory. Inflation has been above the target rate since February of 2020. When you were telling your cabinet colleagues to find a dollar of savings for every dollar spent, you went on and added $52.2 billion in new inflationary spending in the fall economic statement.
You also asked how you could not afford to borrow when interest rates were so low. Then you failed to lock in those rates, and now we've seen the biggest interest rate hikes in history due to your inflation. The Governor of the Bank of Canada said at this committee that Liberal spending has driven up inflation, and he will have to continue high interest rates.
Why should Canadians trust that anything your government will do is actually going to be fiscally responsible?