Mr. Speaker, to allow consumers to check exactly what their costs are and to ensure that Canadians are able to monitor these kinds of charges, we set up the Financial Consumer Agency which is in the process of doing exactly that.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2006, with 48% of the vote.
Banking Industry March 12th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, to allow consumers to check exactly what their costs are and to ensure that Canadians are able to monitor these kinds of charges, we set up the Financial Consumer Agency which is in the process of doing exactly that.
Taxation March 12th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, if there is a surplus, it is thanks to good management of the Canadian economy. If there is a surplus, it is because jobs have been created; there has been economic growth. And it is thanks to that surplus that we have been able to transfer $23 billion to the provinces, a year ago, a record figure.
Taxation March 12th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, it is not only the Canadian finance minister who does not recognize this imbalance. Neither do the Conseil du patronat and the Chamber of Commerce.
Moreover, when we are looking at the next five years, there is also the Conference Board of Canada, according to the Séguin commission.
Budget Implementation Act, 2001 March 11th, 2002
moved that the bill, as amended, be concurred in with further amendment.
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, all I can ask is that if the member's argument is valid, how is it that it is not borne out by her own projections, by the projections of the conference board?
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois wants to use the conference board's projections to prove their case.
When we look at the projections for the next five years, the projected surplus for each year is less than our reserves for prudence. So, how can the member say that there is a fiscal imbalance even using the PQ's projections?
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, instead of working himself into a state, the Bloc Quebecois critic should read the report of the conference board, which, if we look at the forecasts for the next four years and at the basic assumptions, supports the Canadian government's position.
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, allow me to quote the Conference Board's forecasts. For the coming year, they anticipate a surplus of less than $200 million; for the following year, it is $2 billion; the year after, $2 billion. This is less than our contingency reserve. These are certainly not staggering surpluses.
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, if the leader of the Bloc Quebecois wants to accept the projections of the conference board, then he will also have to accept that there is no imbalance over the next four years. There is no imbalance, nor is there any federal government surplus, any excess money, according to the conference board projections.
Thereafter, in the next fifteen years, any federal surplus will only be based on some very unrealistic hypotheses.
Taxation March 11th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, in order to lend its projections credibility, the Séguin commission draws on the projections of the conference board.
Looking at the conference board's projections in detail, we can see that it really does support the position of the Canadian government.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois has two choices, therefore: accept the conference board projections and thus the thesis of the Canadian government, or not accept these projections, in which case he is denying that the Séguin commission and its projections have any credibility.