Mr. Speaker, as the official opposition finance critic, I had the privilege recently of hearing the testimony of Sonia L'Heureux, the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, when she gave an update to the finance committee. She is the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, hand-selected by the Conservative government.
I would like to quote what she said in her economic and fiscal update on April 29. She said, “The Canadian economy is currently 1.9 per cent below its level of potential GDP.” Our economy is underperfoming. Canadian households are at a level of all-time personal debt, companies are not investing, our exports are in the tank, but the government is happy to spend tens of millions of dollars of public money advertising programs that no longer exist or do not yet exist.
I would like the member opposite to tell us why the government continues to put its foot on the brake, brings in austerity measures for Canadian households, but squanders tax dollars for its own self-serving advertising.