Mr. Speaker, if we go back and look at the record of the previous Liberal government, it ended up balancing that budget on the backs of the provinces. If we look at transfer payments to the provinces, these went down every year. I know that for a fact, because I was a minister in a provincial government in Alberta during that time. The Liberals were cutting transfer payments to the provinces on an annual basis. When the Conservatives took over, the Conservative government reinstated those transfer payments. Look what is happening with the health care transfer payments right now. We are seeing it happen all over again.
It is one thing to balance the budget on the backs of the provinces. It is another thing to balance the budget by watching the spending. That is exactly what the Conservative government did when it left these guys with a balanced budget a year ago.