Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has not cut spending by a single penny. In fact, spending is up by $2.8 billion this year over last.
The one thing that saved the Minister of Finance and allowed him to meet his deficit reduction target was that he squeezed Canadian taxpayers for another $7.3 billion; $2.8 billion of that was applied to the ever-rising cost of servicing our debt and $4.5 billion was used to reduce the deficit.
Is it the intention of the Liberal government to balance the budget on the backs of the taxpayers? If it is, taxpayers need to know the costs. Their taxes will double in the next 10 years in order to pay for the ever-rising cost of the debt while reducing the deficit to zero.
By that time, the government will have killed the goose that laid the golden egg and the rich will have joined the ranks of the poor.