Mr. Speaker, a huge percentage of the deficit the government has racked up came before the pandemic even hit. It was running $87 billion worth of deficits before COVID-19.
During the pandemic, the government decided to give $1 billion to its friends in the WE organization, and sole-sourced contracts to former Liberal MPs as well. The government took the time during the pandemic to make sure that it enriched its friends.
Let us talk about inflation. The Liberals would have us believe that it is some kind of external phenomenon like the weather: Inflation just happens. It does not happen in countries that did not run the printing presses. I could go on and on about billions of dollars in wasteful spending, corporate welfare and $35 billion through the Canadian Infrastructure Bank to bankroll large projects for profitable private companies.
The member is going to try to convince Canadians that all of the inflationary spending was related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is demonstrably false. When we go through the public accounts and look at where the government spent money, a lot of it was on increased discretionary spending. We heard throughout the week that it actually had the opposite effect of its intention. The government spent more money on housing but got fewer units built, and the price of housing is going up because of it. That is why we need less government intervention in the economy and more free market solutions.