Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have invented this notion of considering a budget balanced on the basis of operational spending. Under the Minister of Finance's newly invented rules, the Trudeau government would have had a budget surplus in 2015‑16, followed by two years of balanced budgets, a surplus in 2018‑19, and a budget surplus the year after the pandemic.
If someone in the private sector were to calculate capital according to those rules, it would be considered accounting fraud. Not one chartered professional accountant in Canada, not one auditor, would sign off on these financial statements.
What does my colleague think about the fact that the Prime Minister and the minister tried to use this dishonest tactic to hide 58% of their deficit from the public even as they assert that money spent on a FIFA soccer game or on a program to identify potential investments counts as investment?
What does my colleague think about these fraudulent tactics?