Opposition MPs blasted Finance Minister Ralph Goodale following his Tuesday announcement of a projected surplus of $5.9 billion, accusing him of deliberately underestimating the figures.

When Goodale presented his first budget in March, he originally projected a surplus of $4 billion for the current fiscal year.

Ralph Goodale delivers his economic and fiscal update.(CP Photo)
Ralph Goodale delivers his economic and fiscal update.(CP Photo)

Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg accused the government of deliberately hiding money in order to prevent the opposition and Canadians from saying what they want to do with the overflow.

"Why isn't [the prime minister] allowing Canadians who want lower taxes to be part of this debate," Solberg said in the House of Commons. "Why don't they have a say in this?"

"This money belongs to taxpayers, they deserve to have the truth," Solberg later told Goodale during the finance committee hearings.

In October, Goodale took heat from opposition politicians as he announced that last year's surplus had turned out to be $9.1 billion, not $1.9 billion as he had forecast in his February budget.

"I don't know if we can believe your numbers," Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP finance critic, told Goodale Tuesday.

During an exchange with Yvon Loubier, the Bloc Québécois critic, Goodale rejected that he had "lied to anybody," insisting his figures are cautious but accurate.

Bruce Winchester, the research director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the government should have been able to forecast Tuesday's numbers sooner.

"I think that Canadians are getting to the point where they're somewhat fed up. They're getting to the saturation point. It's like the boy who cried wolf."

Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday that Canadians shouldn't expect to see tax cuts any time soon despite Ottawa's larger-than-expected multibillion-dollar surplus.

Martin told reporters that the government is focusing first on its agenda to improve health care, native living conditions and equalization payments to have-not provinces, and create a national day care program.

"We all understand the importance of reducing taxes, but we're going to accomplish our program first. And to the extent that tax cuts can be brought within that after those priorities have been met, clearly we will do so," Martin said.

On Tuesday, the prime minister played down a question about the government's ability to accurately project a surplus, saying that at a recent G-7 meeting in Europe, members were more interested in the economic success Canada has attained.

"Nobody over there was saying, 'You're a little off in your surplus projections,' or 'You were a lot off in your surplus projections.' What they said was, 'Boy, this is a country that's got real economic strength.'"

Martin said Canadians are more concerned that the government has the financial strength to meet its commitments for social programs and "ultimately reduce taxes."

"And you can't do that unless you're generating surpluses," he said.