Mr. Speaker, I cannot make such a claim. However, I can say to this economist, who has been conditioned by only a few months of politics, that our forecasts are based on the forecasts of Quebec and Canada's major institutions on the growth of the GDP. These rates of growth, in real terms, are those we applied to the growth of spending.
In case he is not aware of it, the Royal Bank continues to publish forecasts, which we have used for this year and the next two years. We have used the forecasts of the Bank of Montreal, the Scotia Bank, the Toronto Dominion Bank, the National Bank, the Mouvement Desjardins and the CIBC. If that is not official and solid, I would like to know what is.
When he was a member of the group of economists consulted by the Minister of Finance behind closed doors, I never heard him speak of the annual surplus. It is easy to step behind closed doors and let the Minister of Finance say “I have consulted economists and here is what they had to say”. But they have a responsibility.
On the Standing Committee on Finance, economists came to testify and they laughed at the Minister of Finance's forecasts. These were the same economists who discussed with him behind closed doors. Somewhere there are issues of competence and honesty.