Mr. Matthews, the backlog still exists and is still ongoing, unfortunately, and the veterans are tired of that. They keep coming back and complaining to you, perhaps, to the Veterans Affairs folks and to us as well when we meet them. They're saying that this is not the country they sacrificed things for. They don't accept that.
Getting back to what Mr. Patzer said, the debt is going up to $1.2 trillion and counting. Servicing that debt costs roughly $1 billion a week, and by 2031 it's going to be roughly $2 billion. That's according to the PBO. We have heard from the minister that the spending this year has gone up by 15.9% compared with last year. This is when you're proclaiming—not you per se, but the government—that we are tightening the belt. I would hate to think what the number would have been if he had not decided to tighten the belt.
There's a question that folks out there have. Is this an illusion or is this the worst-case scenario, where neither the government nor the Treasury Board has any clue in what's going on? That's the perception, unfortunately, that is out there. Would you care to comment, sir?