Mr. Speaker, in fact, from 2005-06, when the government came to power, to 2008-09 spending growth will average 4.1%. That is almost a full percentage point below the projected rate of growth in the economy over that period. It is also one-half of the rate of growth of spending for the previous five years, which was 8.2% on average.
This year there were extra financial pressures because we needed to fix the fiscal balance. Almost two-thirds of new spending in this budget were transfers to other levels of government to restore the fiscal balance.
Setting aside the fiscal balance, the tax cuts put in place before this budget were almost twice as much as spending measures in this budget. We are reducing spending. We are getting it under control. It is under the rate of growth of the economy over the average term of our mandate. We are very proud of that.