Thank you, Chair.
I'll acknowledge that the minister is here after multiple requests that she's ignored and refused to show up for, even though the Governor of the Bank of Canada has come regularly at the committee's request.
Minister, you said, “What Canadians want right now is for inflation to come down and for interest rates to fall. And that is one of our primary goals in this year's budget: not to pour fuel on the fire of inflation. So, in our budget, we will exercise fiscal restraint.”
What we see, again, is that your government spending is causing inflation to go up, like it did again today. Your fall economic statement said that you would balance the budget in 2027-28, but after your $43 billion budget bonanza, you say you won't balance the budget.
Why did you mislead Canadians?