Prime Minister Stephen Harper gives his reply to the speech from the throne on Parliament Hill. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Tackling the deficit and clamping down on the growth of government spending will avoid "devastating cuts" in the future, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday in Parliament.

"Bad choices now, unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, ditherings on deficits and difficult decisions will doom those countries who choose them to years of debt, stagnation and unemployment," Harper said in the House of Commons.

Harper was elaborating on the throne speech delivered last week by Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, which laid out the government's agenda.

Harper said the economy cannot be taxed into prosperity, that the deficit must begin to come down "modestly now but quickly by next year" and that spending growth will have be moderated immediately.

"If we do these things, we will also be able to avoid the absolute levels of reduction and the kinds of devastating cuts to core services like health care, pensions and education that will occur if we delay as past governments did after previous recessions," the prime minister said.

The government's plan to get ahead of its $54-billion deficit is built largely on the back of $17.6 billion worth of savings over the next five years that will come from streamlining and reducing the operating and administrative costs of government departments.

Throne speech full of gimmicks: Ignatieff

Harper said it's too early for Canada to declare that it has successfully surpassed the economic recession and that there are many "possible potholes in the road ahead."

He said the economy is not where it needs to be and that too many people are still without work.

But he said the measures the government has taken, including the financial stimulus plan and a budget that focuses on debt-reduction and economic growth meant to spur job creation, will ensure Canada emerges from the recession in the "strongest position of any first-tier economy."

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff criticized Harper and the speech from the throne, saying it had no new ideas and was full of gimmicks that ignore important issues like health care and clean energy innovations.

He said the throne speech will be largely forgotten, remembered only for "one of the most remarkable flip-flops in the history of throne speeches — a promise to change O Canada that lasted approximately 48 hours."

"So, the real question is, what's the next throne speech promise to be tossed overboard? Which gimmick will go next?" Ignatieff said.

He also blasted the government for proroguing Parliament for two months, saying that Harpers's claim that he needed to do so in order to recalibrate the government's economic plan was a fiction?

Ignatieff concluded by asking for an amendment to the throne speech that asked that the governor general not be burdened in future with "frivolous requests for prorogation."