Mr. Speaker, our goal is balanced budgets. It is something that we promised in the last election. Unfortunately, during the global economic downturn that began in 2008, we were required by the begging and bewildering calls of the opposition to increase spending to keep the economy afloat. As a consequence, the deficit was a little higher for that year and we are working diligently by controlling spending to get the budget balanced.
In the House of Commons on October 30th, 2012. See this statement in context.