Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. He seems to have left his French at the door. As for me, I have practised my French almost every week since the 2015 election.
However, for the purposes of this question I hope he will accept an answer in English.
It is important to my constituents to know that we are managing the nation's finances in a responsible way, but that includes taking advantage of the opportunity to make investments that are going to grow our economy. The fact is that because of the investments we are making, our economy is growing faster than the national debt is growing.
I cannot help but point out the irony of the question about deficits and irresponsible spending coming from my friends among the Conservative Party, who racked up $150 billion of debt during the time Stephen Harper was prime minister. The Conservatives had one year, albeit during a recession, with a debt of $55 billion, but all they had to show for it was the slowest rate of growth since the Great Depression.
We have made investments in infrastructure that are actually putting people to work. Our policies are allowing businesses to create jobs at a faster rate than they have in a very long time. The net result of these investments is that our economy is growing fast enough that we are in a better fiscal position today than we were three years ago.