Mr. Speaker, that is a very good question. It is a perceptive one because it goes to the heart of the con game that the government has been trying to play for so long with budgets.
The Minister of Finance always exaggerates the figures that he puts in his budgets and he keeps away information that is germane. Those unemployment targets should be in the budget of Canada. They allow people to have some sense as to what our prospects are and what our path should be.
We have seen this again in the budget that was brought down by the minister yesterday. He claims he is making a $2 billion tax cut for small and medium size businesses. He says that it will be a great help to them. It will let them defer their tax payments for six months. Why is that? Because he knows that if they pay those taxes this year and not next year, he will show a deficit next year. What is pretending to be a tax deferral for some, not farmers, not fishermen, but some small businesses, is actually a means of cover. It is a means by which the Minister of Finance can try again to fool more Canadians about the real state of the Canadian economy. He does it by hiding unemployment figures. He does it by playing hocus-pocus with tax changes.
What we need is a budget whose honesty and figures Canadians can count on. We did not get it yesterday.