Mr. Speaker, I have made it very clear that the signals are mixed. In fact we are monitoring the situation very closely.
I just think that it is really incumbent upon the hon. member as well to be balanced and not to be fear mongering. He talks about retail sales. He is wrong. Retail sales were up 1% above the fourth quarter of the year 2000. His facts are wrong.
As far as the payment of debt, the Alliance Party recommended that we pay down debt by an average of $6 billion a year. The fact is that we have paid down debt by $7 billion on average over the last four years, $1 billion more than it ever thought it could do.