Mr. Speaker, I do not know what he is specifically referring to with regard to Mr. Chrétien back then. I was not in the House at the time, so I cannot really comment on that.
What I know is that there was an expectation and a sense of a commitment provided by the government that the budget date would be known by now and that it would possibly even be presented in February. That was fairly widely accepted. It was quite surprising that at a time when we wanted to have confidence in the economy, when oil prices started to drop so rapidly, the only excuse the government was able to come up with was that because of the dropping oil prices, it had to put off the budget. Making a statement of that nature does not do anything to reinforce confidence in the economy.
It is hard to imagine that this is the only reason the government would have to put it off. That is one of the biggest reasons the government is being criticized as much as it is in relation to the budget not being presented earlier.