Mr. Speaker, Canada's chief accountant, the auditor general, says the finance minister is cooking the books. That is a fact. This is so serious that the auditor general is now saying that he is very reluctant to sign off on these books, an action which he says “waves a red flag that the government is misrepresenting or distorting its financial position”. I ask the finance minister again why he has decided that his own political agenda is more important than the integrity of the public finances.
In the House of Commons on March 11th, 1998. See this statement in context.