Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
Our government tabled, as part of the budget, a paper entitled “Restoring Fiscal Balance in Canada”. In it, one of the problems that we identified in years past under the previous government had to do with transparency in budget planning. The budget paper outlines one of the problems that we have had in recent years. The government consistently underestimated the sizes of the surpluses. At year end, March 31 each year, the provinces were always surprised at the amount of the federal surplus because the government failed to be sufficiently transparent in this regard.
For example, just before the 2004 election, Canadians were told that the budget surplus would be $1.9 billion. It turned out to be $9.1 billion, a difference of almost 400% to 500%. As a result, provinces felt that the government was not being transparent with them with regard to fiscal transfers of the federation.
Our government acknowledges the problems of the previous government with respect to transparency and budget planning. That is why we have set out to establish an independent budgetary office that would be part of the federal accountability act, so that there would be greater transparency and greater accuracy in budget planning.
We have committed to dealing with the question of fiscal balance. We have acknowledged that this is an issue across the country. Obviously, the previous government had mixed messages on it. On the one hand, it indicated that it was not an issue, but on the other hand, it signed the Atlantic accord and the May memorandum with the province of Ontario to address its concerns about fiscal and federal transfers.
Our government has said that we received the Council of the Federation report. We welcome its feedback in this regard. We have received the budget paper. We are looking forward to the expert panel on territorial and equalization financing, also called the O'Brien report, that the previous government commissioned. Over the course of the coming months in the summer, the government will consult widely with the provinces on this issue and in the fullness of time, the Prime Minister will be putting forward proposals in this regard.