Mr. Speaker, just because the government says something does not necessarily mean it is true. The Parliamentary Budget Officer will reinforce that. I will give two or three very short examples.
One could talk about the firearms registry. The government said how much money it cost, but how much did the Parliamentary Budget Officer say it cost? We could talk about seniors' pension crisis. Government said how much it costs and the Parliamentary Budget Officer said something different. For the F-35s, the government said an amount and the Parliamentary Budget Officer said something entirely different.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer does profile important issues, not necessarily taking sides on a political issue but raising issues to the degree of making the discussion more credible, thus adding to the debate and the value for all Canadians.
Would the member agree that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has done fabulous work in raising the credibility of the numbers related to issues?