Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of Orwellianspeak in this House over the budget.
The budget contains the words “long-term sustainability”, yet it contains within its pages the provision that would remove the protection of fish habitat from the Fisheries Act and instead replace it with doing serious harm to fisheries.
Experts around the country are routinely panning such a shortsighted change to our fisheries, because for long-term sustainability of our fishery we obviously have to protect the habitat.
I did a bit of research and found that when the present government took office, the debt of Canada was $457 billion. It is $586 billion today. The current government has run up the highest deficit in the history of Canada.
I wonder if my friend can comment on whether or not she thinks it is fiscally prudent for a government to increase Canada's debt by $130 billion in six years and run the biggest deficit in Canada's history, second only to Michael Wilson, a previous Conservative finance minister?