Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance went to Quebec City yesterday to defend his surplus-slashing, deficit-building budget and delivered a cringeworthy performance reminiscent of the worst wedding speech anyone has ever heard. Let us just say he shared a little too much information.
However, the interesting fact is that when it comes to sharing specifically on budget transparency, the parliamentary budget officer said that the Minister of Finance did not provide enough information.
The PBO accused the Minister of Finance and the Liberal government of suppressing financial data. He accused them of twisting and exaggerating the information it did provide in the budget. The PBO said that the Liberals did not provide them any information for them to judge their projections.
This is becoming a trend with this Liberal government. Not only has it misled the PBO, but it has misled Canadians about the fact that Conservatives left Liberals with a healthy surplus, a fact confirmed by the minister's own department officials.
Mislead, misdirect, mistakes: meet the new Liberals, same as the old Liberals.