Senator Housakos: The first step in correcting mistakes is to recognize you’ve made mistakes. I see from your answer that there isn’t a willingness to recognize that you miscalculated as a government.

Government leader, this year the average Canadian family of four will spend $966 more on groceries than they did a year ago. In March of this year, grocery bills were 8.7% higher than just one year before. Eggs are up 8.5%, more than last month; milk is up 7.7%; pasta is up a whopping 17.8%. These aren’t fancy delicacies; they are basic food items. This comes at a time when families are already paying more for housing, for gas, for transporting their kids from home to school and back and forth. The Governor of the Bank of Canada is now saying inflation could go even higher. The word “transitory” certainly isn’t being used anymore, which was a favourite of the Minister of Finance in your government.

Senator Gold, how can you possibly defend your government’s high tax expense policies when they continue to fuel inflation, and families are already being stretched to their complete limits?