Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.
The budget calls for spending $163 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, some $40 billion of which will have to be borrowed. Spread out across the population of Canada this works out to spending about $1,500 per family per month of money that is collected in taxes and other revenue and spending an additional $500 per family per month of borrowed money.
My question for the minister is this. In view of the fact that there are thousands of families who do not even make $2,000 per month and many more for whom that is away too much, will the minister acknowledge that this level of spending is away higher than we can sustain in the long run?