Mr. Speaker, I did what the member requested. I read the document. The problem is it tells a much different story as compared to the government propaganda.
The fact of the matter is, and we have been saying this for some time and our leader said it today, that when the government came to power it had a huge surplus. It spent the cupboard bare. Through the reduction in the GST, which took away $12 billion a year, it destroyed the ability of the federal government to have the reserves to be able to do something real in terms of a stimulus package. I want to get the facts straight. The Conservatives are trying to leave the impression that this year there is about a $30 billion stimulus package. That is what economists have called for. The government is budgeting $34 billion and expecting that will leave the impression there is a $30 billion stimulus. In the budget document on page 217 it says there already is a deficit of $15.7 billion. Therefore, there is really only $18 billion worth of stimulus in the budget.
Is the minister and the government trying to hide the fact that they have already put this country in a $16 billion deficit hole before we even start to do stimulus?