Mr. Speaker, what we have done to manage public finances has been to take the $42 billion deficit we inherited when we took office and put the fiscal house in order. And the provinces greatly benefited from this, because when we took office, they were paying 11.5% interest on their debt, while now, it is down to a mere 5% or 6%.
In the House of Commons on November 27th, 2002. See this statement in context.