Mr. Speaker, the finance minister talks about a huge paydown in debt. He has paid down less than half of the amount of debt that he added to the national debt.
Today we learned from Statistics Canada that the leading economic indicator has dropped for the fourth straight month. We also know that retail sales have slipped. Manufacturing shipments are down by 19% over the past four months.
How can he continue to talk about a rosy scenario when all the economic indicators are on a downslide?