Madam Speaker, I am delighted to participate in the debate tonight. This gives us a chance to address the fundamental issue of democracy, as so many have said tonight, as part of the budgetary process.
Some of us were recently in Ukraine and had a chance to see the determination and courage of an entire nation standing up to be counted, standing up to ensure that their democratic rights were not trampled upon, determined to have their voices heard, and determined to have their votes count.
Surely in this context, the government can hear the voices of opposition representing Canadians from coast to coast to coast. They are concerned about whether or not their rights, opinions and feelings are reflected in the budget, the road map of government from start to finish. We are dealing tonight with a critical part of that road map, a critical element of a process that must reflect the democratic rights of Canadians and their feelings about accountability and transparency.
We have heard over and over again tonight just how much democracy has been eroded in this process. In the context of what is happening worldwide, when we see democracy being so fragile, we must do everything possible to respect the wishes of Canadians, and to stand up and demand a process that is full of integrity, honesty and truthfulness.
We have an obligation in the House to ensure that the voices of Canadians are mirrored in this place and that their concerns about accountability, transparency, responsibility, honesty and integrity are all integrated into the budgetary process from start to finish.
The estimates process is a critical part of this whole public policy arena. Tonight we have an opportunity to shed some light on just how effective our government has been with respect to the budgetary process, including the accuracy of the information presented in the estimates. There are a number of critical questions that have to be asked tonight, questions that the President of the Treasury Board did not really address in his rather pedantic lecturing style tonight.
We are dealing with some fundamental issues that have been identified as problem areas for the government, by the Auditor General, by outside observers, and by many in the House. Members have had to sit through and try to influence a position or an approach that has been so rigid, so autocratic, and so arbitrary that we have felt unable to represent the concerns of the people back in our respective constituencies.
There are several key questions that must be asked in this context. The first critical question is: Is the information that is at the beginning of the budget process accurate? Are we able, as Parliamentarians and Canadians, to draw on truthful information and make decisions based on that, or are we starting from a place where there are real questions about the accuracy and the truthfulness of the information provided to us and to all Canadians?
The answer should be readily apparent to members this evening if they were to reflect on the past couple of months in the House. We have dealt with a very serious issue, an issue now identified and recognized by many around the country. It was the deliberate decision on the part of the government to present inaccurate statistics to this place and to the people of Canada. It deliberately lowballed the surplus so that we were denied an opportunity to debate and choose priorities.
Whatever side of the issue we are on, I am talking about the ability to make decisions based on accurate information. If we do not have accurate information, it is pretty darned difficult to have a serious, intelligent debate about choices and priorities.
We now know that year after year over the past decade the Liberal government has chosen to present inaccurate information. We know that the government has chosen to lowball the surplus to the tune of $86 billion. Some people will ask, what is so bad about having a surplus? We are not saying there is anything wrong with having a surplus. We are saying it is a crime to have that information hidden from Canadians because we cannot choose where that money should be spent.
We know, by the very process that the government has chosen, that the money that comes our way, by way of surplus, disappears and is put against the debt regardless of whether or not it makes a significant dent in the debt to GDP ratio. For 10 years now this trend has occurred because of a deliberate decision by the government of the day. We are left trying to deal with serious priorities among Canadians and without the wherewithal to do it.
The first critical aspect of this whole budget process and the estimates must be a plea and a recognition on the part of the government that it must change its ways. In the spirit of democracy and addressing the democratic deficit, we must receive accurate information. Canadians are entitled to the facts. We are all invited to participate in a process in the interests of democracy.
When we raised this matter in the House and in committee, the government feigned ignorance, like it really did not know this was happening. It said that it is hard to predict budgets, that there are so many different forecasts, and so many different predictions and it was hard to do.
I want to point to two developments in response to that argument. First, despite the fact that the government has hired all these private sector forecasters from the banks and all these so-called smart economists, who have not produced one single accurate forecast in all these years, there is a group of learned economists in our society who have made accurate forecasts. Every single year the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has done just that. It has come within tiny percentage points of being in line with the actual reality.
The government members will not listen to the Jim Stanfords and John Loxleys of the world. They spend their time studying the figures and making accurate forecasts so we could make proper decisions in this place. If the government is interested in being accurate, it would turn to those people who have provided those enlightened analyses of the budget prospects for the future.
Second, is the interesting fact that the government actually did recognize that there was a problem in its budget forecasts. Lo and behold, there was an actual study done in 1994 by the then minister of finance who is now our Prime Minister. He recognized that there was enough of a problem that he hired Ernst & Young to study the forecasting methods of the Department of Finance. It is fascinating. It is even more fascinating because that report recommended that:
An independent forecasting agency could be established. The mandate of this agency would be to provide the “no policy change” economic and fiscal forecasts, and to forecast the impact of the Government's fiscal plans.
Imagine if the government had only acted in 1994 on the recommendations of its own study, which was initiated because it knew there was a problem. Then the government conveniently chose to ignore the study, the problem that it had created and to perpetuate this untruth, an inaccurate forecasting of the money available to parliamentarians and Canadians for public policy decision making.
We have to resolve that. We have to resolve this soon. It is not good enough for the government to suddenly say it has hired another banker to study this and make recommendations. Parliament has sent a message to the government through the Speech from the Throne that there shall be a serious study by an independent budget forecaster and there shall be steps taken to resolve this issue.
It is absolutely imperative that we let Canadians know tonight that at least those of us in the opposition who believe in the need for action in this area will work to make it happen regardless of the obstacles and roadblocks the government of the day puts in our path. That is the first issue that we have to deal with and why we have such doubts here tonight.
The second, even more than in terms of the forecasting, is whether the government is truthful in terms of its stated objectives. Can we trust the word of the government? Is it possible to take the words from a speech from the throne or a budget and for Canadians to feel confident that will be the road map?