Mr. Speaker, I can always look forward to a bit of levity when the member for New Brunswick Southwest gives his speeches. There are not a lot of facts, just levity.
Let us get down to the facts. We inherited from the hon. member's government a $42.5 billion deficit that we cleaned up in five years. His government was in for nine years and it just made things worse.
The hon. member said that we cut money to the provinces. Here is what happened in Ontario. What he says is partially true. We did in fact cut transfer payments to the province of Ontario by $5.9 billion. But we gave Ontario extra tax points which amounted to $4 billion. As well, we have the lowest interest rates in 30 years, which represent $1.3 billion worth of savings—