Mr. Speaker, in the budget which he brought down yesterday-if we can still call what is left of it a budget-the Minister of Finance projected a record deficit of nearly $40 billion. Considering how accurate Finance Department forecasts are, it is possible that the deficit could be much higher than $40 billion. In fact, in the 1992 budget, revenues were overestimated by $11 billion, and in the 1993 budget, by $10 billion. A slight discrepancy, would you not agree. In point of fact, for the past two years at least, government revenues have been declining, while the underground economy has been thriving. Consequently, tax revenue forecasts have been completely thrown off.
How can we take the Minister of Finance seriously? How are we supposed to take a stand-up comic seriously when he announces an already record deficit of nearly $40 billion, given that he arrived at this figure by overestimating revenues, like his predecessors, when in fact he knows full well that for several years now, tax revenues have not been growing at the same rate as the economy.