Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Peace River for his comments and his question.
Of course, there is a problem. When it is not a problem of cronyism or outright thanking with money friends who have made contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada, it is clearly a problem of management abilities.
The member mentioned it: the fact that a $4 billion error such as this was made in overpayments to four provinces raises serious questions about this government's competency and that of the main administrators at Revenue Canada, or the Department of Finance.
The former Minister of Finance's estimates are a farce. From 1997 to today, the former minister was out by $66 billion in cumulative surpluses. This means that every year, he diverted billions and billions of dollars away from public debate. This was repeated until after five years, a total of $66 billion had been accumulated.
This means that citizens of this country did not get the real picture of public finances, they did not see what this government could have done because the truth was being kept from them. They were being told all kinds of things about the surplus. They were told “there will not be that much of a surplus. We must be careful, we must be prudent”.
There is a difference between being prudent, even being extremely prudent, and saying all kinds of things to the public and taking them for idiots. The former Minister of Finance took the public for idiots. He was $66 billion off in his forecasts; it makes no sense.
During all those years, I think he was trying to set the stage for his exit, the way he did reaping incredible praise on his abilities as a manager. That is what he did. He put his leadership campaign before the welfare of the population. That is what he did.