Mr. Speaker, in 1991 Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick was in a financial mess. It had a deficit of $2.5 million and a debt of $10 million. Like the federal government it desperately needed to get its financial house in order. The current president of the university, Ian Newbould, was recently quoted in Maclean's magazine as saying: ``If we were a corporation we would have been in receivership''.
In over three years that university has eliminated its debt and created a surplus of $13 million. Clearly the goal of the university president was not to achieve a smaller deficit. Instead, satisfaction would only come with no deficit and zero debt. The goal was achieved through responsible control.
The finance minister stood in this House and expected praise for a deficit prediction of $25 billion. Some provinces, and universities such as Mount Allison, have become the national standard of fiscal responsibility. The minister needs to take a hard look at how the real world manages its finances and reflect on how he failed to measure up to the Canadian standard.