Mr. Speaker, in my eight years as minister, I enjoyed great relationships with all my departments, and indeed my deputy ministers, and I can count them as friends as I go through my life. I know the respect that the previous government had for them, regardless of what the hon. members says across respecting it.
Finance officials will know that they can be proud of the fact that they helped steer us through the great recession. They were the ones who helped us become number one in the G7. They helped to create one million net new jobs. They helped support the best finance minister in the world, which, I would daresay, is a title that we will not be seeing in a long time with respect to the current government.
I have three questions for the minister. If he could answer them, it would be great.
When is the budget? How much is the deficit? How is he going to get back to his surplus?