Mr. Speaker, I only wish it were a prudent approach. The hon. member neglects to mention that our debt to GDP will fall to 25% if we do absolutely nothing by the year 2014. His focus on debt, while laudable in and of itself, when the government has an excess money is not such a bad public policy initiative. However, to focus on it to the exclusion of other deficits, infrastructure being the classic one, is economic foolishness.
I would be more impressed with the hon. member's speech if his government were not in a runaway mode on spending. The government has been spending two to three times our GDP growth. it is easily the largest spending, fastest spending government in all of Canadian history. It is runaway spending that would embarrass Paris Hilton.
Simultaneously the Conservatives have been reducing revenue bases, inappropriately, we would argue. The number the finance minister put before us last week was that in this fiscal year coming up we would have roughly $2.3 billion with which to play. That would be all very fine if the revenue projections held. However, as of this morning, the Globe and Mail states:
That would make [the Minister of Finance]'s pledge last week to balance the budget trickier. Like the central bank, the Finance Department was counting on growth of 1.5 per cent...
This was after the government reduced its growth protections by 25%. It is now down to zero rate of growth. It goes on to say:
The weaker result means Canada's economy was smaller at the start of 2008 than Finance officials anticipated...
Does the hon. member consider this to be solid management of the nation's growth when we face these economic challenges?