Mr. Speaker, the budget notwithstanding, the Canadian economy is in obvious trouble.
It shrank in January, worse than first reported. February was flat. Oil and gas have tumbled. Manufacturing was supposed to pick up the slack, but it is dropping too. U.S. growth was supposed to pull Canada along, but that is not happening either. A thousand more jobs are gone today at GM. Thirty-five per cent of Canadian families are carrying debt ratios over 200%.
Why did we waste two months for a pointless budget with no plan for growth and not even a basic job creation target?