Madam Speaker, according to Jonathon Gatehouse at the CBC, Kevin Page, at the University of Ottawa's Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, “can hardly make sense of the recent 223-page fall economic update, saying an evening spent parsing its charts, graphs and verbiage left him feeling like he had a hangover.” As Page says, “It's impossible to read. I have done this for years and I can't even follow the money.” He wonders whether someone in government is trying to obscure the data and notes, “When we go out and tell people we can't follow the money, the trust is broken.”
The Parliamentary Budget Officer commented two weeks ago that “Parliamentarians...have no clear idea as to how much money is being spent.” The government is not even updating its fiscal accounts.
Why should Canadians trust the government when our independent institutions have told us we cannot trust you?