Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. In 2011, the government did not miss a beat. It had the budget ready to go after the election. The budget drives departments. A federal budget sets the plan, sets the stage, for every single government department. It sends the signal to businesses, to job creators and to investors as to what they can expect the rules of the game to be for the next 12 months or so. It also sends a signal to the bond markets about how the government is going to manage its finances.
It is as if someone were to go into a bank and ask for a loan but could not show pay stubs or expense accounting. A bank would charge a higher interest rate if they were not sure where the person would get the money to pay off the loan. The same is true for governments. Governments have to go out and ask people who have money whether they can borrow that money. When the people who buy government debt and, in effect, lend money to the Government of Canada do not see a fiscal plan, they are going to charge a premium for lending that money to the government.
I believe that, without that plan, we are going to see higher interest rates, and that means more tax dollars going to pay bankers and bondholders than going into tax relief or improving services for Canadians.