Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has a short memory. Two weeks after he tabled his budget, the Bank of Canada rate reached a high of 8.6 per cent, which was higher than the current 7.65 per cent rate, because that budget was poorly received and because government finances were in bad shape. That is the main factor, as Moody's recognized in January.
How can the Minister of Finance give such answers when the Governor of the Bank of Canada himself declared on October 12, 1994: "It is only because of the high debt and deficit levels that political uncertainty has become another concern"?