Mr. Speaker, we are near the end of the latest budget implementation bill, with the Conservatives putting into place hundreds of measures from a budget they said was necessary to maintain our fiscal standing. With $5.2 billion in spending cuts, reduced services to Canadians, and the killing of 19,000 public sector jobs that provide those services, it is the most austerity since the Liberals slashed budgets and services in the mid-1990s. The Conservatives are also seriously undermining environmental protection and are attacking pensions and necessary support for unemployed Canadians.
Were these cuts necessary? Not according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who said that the Minister of Finance is lowballing revenues by $4.7 billion a year and that we will be in surplus a year ahead of schedule.
Why are the Conservatives doing this when we have nearly 7.5% unemployment? It is 12% in my own province of Newfoundland and Labrador? They are doing it because they want to make government smaller, regardless of the cost and consequences to Canadians.