Mr. Speaker, oil prices have done nothing but drop recently. Canada knows how important the oil industry is and how the price of oil can affect our finances, given that every dollar less costs the government $150 million.
In budget 2015, the Minister of Finance predicts that the price per barrel will rise from $54 in 2015 to $78 in 2019. However, in the 2014 budget, there was no mention of the fact that the price of oil would drop in 2015.
How can the minister predict this rise in oil prices when the world situation is so unstable? Is the minister balancing his budget by manipulating the forecasts?