Madam Speaker, we have seen governments over the years bring forward budgets that have expressed their concern about overspending and deficit spending, yet each year the debt has grown and grown and grown. Since 1993 we have heard exactly the same kind of rhetoric, that everything is fine, we are on track, be happy and do not worry. Yet the debt has continued to grow year after year after year. The finance minister will not tell us when he believes we will stop sliding into debt. In other words, he has not set a date like many of the provinces have for a balanced budget.
Seeing as how the interest payment on our debt is the greatest threat toward our social programs, including our senior citizens programs, that enormous amount of money we have to pay on an ever rising debt which is going to amount to approximately $50 billion by 1997, which is just next year, is the government prepared to tell Canadians when it expects to balance the debt? Would the member be prepared to offer an estimation of what the debt will be when the government finally reaches a point when it is no longer overspending and borrowing, but instead living within its means? What does the hon. member think that debt and the associated financial interest payments will be?