“Our budget plan separates daily spending from long-term investments. This is good financial planning that helps our economy grow. Because of our investments, wages are growing faster than inflation, and Canada had the best recent economic growth in the G7. We will also balance our day-to-day spending.”

“Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to stand up and talk about best practices in fiscal management. I think our government has done a great thing in having a capital budgeting framework and splitting out operational from capital spending so that our capital budgeting framework can help support capital formation in the economy. The members opposite should agree with the fact that investment that is strategic in revenue generation for our economy creates an investment supercycle and will create a virtuous circle of investment and growth in the economy. Growth begets growth. We get growth in the economy, higher productivity and higher wages, which we have seen every month that the government has been in power. Wages have outpaced inflation. Per capita GDP growth has been up as well. We had the highest quarterly GDP growth in the G7. The member opposite does not seem to like to hear those statistics. For ages in the House, maybe before the member joined us in the House, we heard Conservatives talk about GDP per capita as being the number one indicator of economic health in the country. We now have that, and that is great. As to whether we are going to close the gap in terms of balancing the operational budget, I will answer the member directly: Yes, we will.”

“First, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is a woman, Annette Ryan. I respect her work, but she does not have the government's newest numbers. Wait for the fall budget to see our updated plan. We are cutting $60 billion in spending over five years, and we plan to balance the operating budget in two years.”

“Madam Speaker, let me correct the member opposite first. The Parliamentary Budget Officer is a woman, not a man. It is Annette Ryan, and she is doing a wonderful job. I believe highly in the work of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The function of that office is very important to our democracy. I cannot tell the member whether she is right. All I can say is that she is basing her projections on the information that she has, and they are not the most current projections of the federal government. Obviously, budget 2026 is coming before the House sometime this fall, and the member opposite will see the update on how our government is progressing toward one of our key fiscal anchors, which is to balance the operating budget. This is key because our government has conducted a comprehensive expenditure review, saving $60 billion over five years. That is part of the process of how we will balance the operating budget over the next two years.”