Mr. Chair, I thank the member for North Vancouver for his question and his excellent work on the House finance committee.
All of the measures I just described will help secure Canada's success. However, as critical as they are, they are only as effective as the overall financial health of our country. That is why a balanced budget is critical for Canada's future prosperity.
Canadians know that balancing budgets requires a plan and the discipline to follow through, although having a trust fund makes it easier.
Budgets do not balance themselves.
The Conservative government is making the tough decisions that have to be made to balance the budget, just as families do every day. We are doing what needs to be done and we are on track to table a balanced budget next year.
Taxpayer dollars that could serve other purposes are being used to pay interest on the debt. A surplus would enable us to keep interest rates low, prepare to take on long-term challenges, such as the aging population, and cope with unexpected global economic shocks. Balancing the budget and slashing the debt means lower taxes for Canadians, and that is one of our government's top priorities. That is how it will achieve intergenerational equity.
After all, who would want his children and grandchildren to inherit his debts? Nobody. That is exactly what the Liberals and the New Democrats would do.
Canadians never expect a fiscally responsible NDP. That is the party of carbon taxes and Dutch disease. The NDP has never met a spending proposal it does not like or a spending commitment it did not want to double-down on.
Canadians today are also faced with a back to the seventies Liberal Party. On policy, that party divides its time between sitting on the fence and hiding in the weeds, smoking weed.
Our economic action plan has five pillars that have helped create more than one million new jobs since the recession. The Liberal plan has one line: the budget will balance itself.
How will the Liberals' manage that? It is a question that puzzles most Canadians. After all, at its last policy convention, the Liberal Party committed to no less than 10 new national strategies. Back to the seventies indeed.
Two of their proposals call for spending hikes worth 2% of our entire gross domestic product. That alone is almost $40 billion a year in new spending, $40 billion out of Canadians' pockets into Ottawa's pockets, never mind the other national strategies.
Canadians deserve better. They deserve a real plan to balance the budget, pay down the debt, and lower taxes. One party is delivering that to them, our Conservative Party. One leader is delivering that to them, our Prime Minister. Now is not the time for Liberal experiments. The global economy remains fragile. Our government has a plan to meet these challenges, a plan that is working, and we intend to stay the course.