Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question from my esteemed colleague, the finance critic for the Bloc. I am as mystified by this 10 year record of inaccurate forecasting as he is.
One would think that after a few years the government would get the hang of it and start to produce more accurate forecasting. It either has to be incompetence or deliberate mischievous low-balling in order to control where it wants the money to go. I think it is the latter.
The real question for us today is, what will happen in the next year or in the next couple of years? Already the Minister of Finance is downplaying the numbers available, trying to suggest that next year we will only have a $500 million with which surplus to work. According to the alternative federal budget folks, who have been accurate all these years, we are looking at about $24.1 billion over the next three years.
Will Canadians have a right to discuss what to do with that money? Will we as parliamentarians be able to make some meaningful suggestions that will be taken into consideration by the government? Will the government finally start to recognize that Canadians who suffered as a result of a decade of cutbacks ought to feel the benefits of this surplus? Will we see some spending to deal with the infrastructure deficit, early learning and child care, housing, post-secondary education, the Kyoto agreement obligations and aboriginal needs? Will the government finally address the real needs of Canadians and start to invest in this country?