Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify one point; 8 out of every 10 new jobs are created by small and medium-sized enterprises, and that is absolutely important to note. That is why the corporate tax reduction applies to large corporations, not to SMEs. The Liberal Party understands that we will need to support small and medium-sized enterprises. That is why we put forward a comprehensive list of initiatives to help small and medium-sized enterprises.
More importantly, when the member talks about the government's track record on deficit and debt, and I want to take this opportunity to highlight that, if we look at the public accounts textbook, as the member alluded to, the most recent public accounts showed that the Conservatives spent $9.4 billion on external contracts for professional and special services. That is a $2.2 billion increase over the previous Liberal government.
If we look at Conservatives' projections going forward, we see that they plan to increase deficit and our debt by $156 billion, which would amount to a $10 billion increase in interest payments. Again, this is living beyond our means obligating future generations because the government is mismanaging the public fund.