Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, since the finance minister unveiled her Fall Economic Statement earlier this month, we’ve heard repeated assurances from your government that it has been fiscally prudent. You’ve stated that here. This was challenged by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, when he and the finance minister appeared before the House of Commons Finance Committee on Monday. The PBO’s office calculated that the government had announced $52 billion in net new measures over the span of six years. Allow me to quote from the PBO directly:

Would I qualify this as restrained spending growth? The answer is unsurprisingly, no. When the government has $81 billion in fiscal room and spends $52 billion of that, even after taking into account new tax measures, it’s not called keeping one’s powder dry.

Senator Gold, why is your government not exercising any fiscal restraint in the face of the upcoming economic uncertainty?