Scott Brison, Ron McLean, Don Cherry and Nova Scott premier Hamm arriving at the world's longest hockey game
Confusion about debt repayment
Ottawa, Ontario - November 13, 2002, by:Scott Brison
misleading	Auditor General Sheila Fraser recently exposed some of the financial manoeuvres that the Liberal government has been undertaking to give a stilted view of debt repayment. She also said that the government has been feeding "misleading" information to Canadians regarding the surplus. Imagine, this Liberal government misleading Canada!
$40 million applied to surplus	On that note, the approximately $40 million surplus in the employment insurance account is really not in the account anymore. It has - on the government's accounting books anyway - been applied to the national debt. Therefore, when the government says that it has reduced the debt by so many dollars, this is not exactly the case, because really it's money from the Employment Insurance account that is being applied to a different account.
myth	The Prime Minister states that he must apply the surplus to the debt because federal law dictates it. Not so, says the Auditor General. In fact, the Auditor General was quoted as saying that
	"there is a myth out there that this is what happens."
	She then said that it was time somebody said something about the way the government was handling the surplus and the debt repayment.
employment insurance	Furthermore, Employment Insurance premiums remain unnecessarily high and the Auditor General has recently questioned if the government was following the intent of the Act in keeping premiums as high as they are.
suspect accounting	I applaud the Auditor General for bringing these issues forward. All Canadians benefit when an independent officer of Parliament, such as the Auditor General, speaks out against this government's suspect accounting practices and the way it gives misleading information to the public. Canadians deserve better from their government.
	Scott Brison
	M.P. Kings-Hants
Reference:
	Supplementary Information Observations of the Auditor General of the Financial statements of the Governement of Canada for the year ending March 31, 2002 (PDF 98K/14 pages) published October 24, 2002, refers to Employment Insurance in second paragraph.
	Scott Brison biography
	Progressive Conservative draft page for Scott Brison
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