Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to hear from my esteemed colleague, the member for Louis-Hébert and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. He started his speech by saying this was a historic budget. He is technically correct, because this marks the first time in Canadian history that a government has tabled a deficit budget, for the third time in a row, at a time of economic prosperity.
Let us not forget that these people got elected by promising to post small deficits of $10 billion at most and to balance the budget by 2019. I must have asked about 258 questions about this. Not once have we gotten the faintest trace of anything remotely resembling an answer as to why they have not kept their promise or when we can expect a balanced budget.
During question period earlier, I asked a very clear question, which I will now raise again. The parliamentary budget officer has also had enough of this improvisation, and he wants to know when Canada will get back to a balanced budget.
If he does not respect us, the members of Parliament, could the parliamentary secretary give a clear answer to the parliamentary budget officer and tell him when we will return to a balanced budget?