Mr. Speaker, under the Conservatives, Canadian families are being squeezed by record debt levels and rising costs for everything from education to family care. In the past five years, household debt in Canada has grown by 50%.
The Liberal Party believes in and supports financial literacy education in Canada, but the Conservative finance minister is not qualified to lecture anyone on financial literacy. After all, this is the minister who brought in 40-year mortgages with no down payment, helping to create a debt and housing bubble in Canada.
He gutted the federal contingency reserve and spent Canada into a deficit even before the recession began. Because of him, Canada now has a record $56 billion deficit. He spent $1.3 billion on the G20 photo op, wasting money on everything from mini bars to glow sticks. Now he is borrowing even more money to cut taxes for Canada's richest corporations.
At the first class on literacy, we hope that this borrow and spend finance minister will sit in the front row and take plenty of notes.