Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau got a grilling on Parliament Hill Monday when he appeared before the House of Commons Finance Committee to defend his government's latest budget.
Opposition Conservative politicians accused the Finance Minister of being a poor financial manager and criticized the current Liberal government for falling short on gender equality issues – criticisms Minister Morneau appeared to take personally.
"Canada's fiscal house is in order, which means we are resilient to shocks and uncertainty in the economy," the Finance Minister told the all-party committee. He added that the Liberals would not "take the Conservative approach to cuts," adding that $150 billion of the federal government's budgetary debt was run up by the previous government during the 2008 financial crisis.
Minister Morneau turned aside MPs concerns about how the federal market debt — the debt Canada pays interest on — crossed the $1 trillion threshold in the current budget year. The $1 trillion reflects the federal government's estimated total liabilities or cash needs and what must be borrowed from the markets, he said.
The figure includes the debts of Crown Corporations and accumulated federal budgetary deficits. It does not reflect the cash, land or other assets the federal government might have on hand. When those numbers are factored in, the federal government says its overall debt is $651 billion.
Conservative Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre and Minister Morneau got into an extended exchange over the broken Liberal 2015 election promise to run modest deficits but return to balance in the coming budget year.
"This was your platform," Mr. Poilievre said. "You said you would balance the budget next year. That was the Liberal approach that you ran on. Are you now saying you were wrong?"
Minister Morneau, who remained composed throughout the grilling, took a parting shot at Mr. Poilievre, a career politician who served as the Secretary of State for Democratic Institutions and as Employment Minister under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"It's a challenge when someone hasn't had experience in managing a balance sheet, or in fact managing anything of substance," said Minister Morneau.
Conservative Member of Parliament Lisa Raitt launched her own attack on Minister Morneau, claiming that his record in promoting and advancing women was not up to par.
"Now minister, I think it makes sense for us to look at your track record when we determine whether or not we can trust you to implement what you say you are going to do," said Ms. Raitt. "At most, on your [previous company's] board, you had three out of nine positions occupied by women. In your senior management team you had three out of 11 senior managers who were women."
