Mr. Speaker, I have never heard the words prudent and Liberal spending used in the same phrase together before. I do not think it fits.
We have seen ample evidence of how the Liberals have mismanaged the economy in the past 30 years, which put us in this huge hole. We still have a $536 billion national federal debt as a result of those guys over there.
Since 1993 the government has talked about how the debt has come down under the Liberals. The Liberals forgot to tell us that they inherited about $508 billion in debt from the Conservatives. They took the debt up to $583 billion. They have now reduced it to $536 billion, and they tells us they have reduced the debt.
The member asked about the increases in spending. There has been a number of private groups that have looked at the government's projections on budgets. I think it is pretty clear. If we add up the numbers for the fiscal year 2002-03, it is almost a 12% increase in this last year alone.
It will finish by March 31 of this fiscal year. It could even be worse than that. We know at the moment from the estimates that there will be an 11.5% increase in spending or over $14.7 billion in this last year alone. Given the direction of the former minister of finance in the last two years, I thought the new Minister of Finance would take this opportunity to show some new direction and chart a new course for himself. Unfortunately he did not do that. What he has chosen to do instead is spend on the same spending path of the former minister, the member for LaSalle—Émard, which is about 6% to 7% a year.
The member raised the issue of inflation and population growth. The formula that is widely used is about 2.5% or 2% as an accepted rate. These guys are spending at almost three times the accepted rate for population growth plus rate of inflation. If that is not a recipe for disaster I do not know what is.
Why can the government not learn from its past mistakes? This is what got us into that huge problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the government was growing the size of direct program spending year after year. It put us into a situation where we ended up with $583 billion in debt.
This year alone $36 billion are the interest charges on that debt. Imagine what we could do with that money if the Liberal government had not put us in that kind of hole. The government has not learned a thing. It is continuing the same path it was on in the 1970s. It is back to the future with the Liberals.
A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.