Mr. Speaker, just three months ago, the Prime Minister gave his ministers new mandate letters.
The Minister of Finance's mandate letter asked her to do three things: avoid creating new permanent spending, review the debt management strategy, and present a new fiscal anchor.
Over the past three months, the Minister of Finance has rejected each of these mandates. This budget will go down in history as the highest-spending budget in Canada's history, with a slew of new permanent spending measures.
Political commentator Bernard Drainville was not fooled. He said this morning that the Liberal government seemed to be making a point of not talking about balancing the budget.
Why?