Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola MP Dan Albas has been named the Conservative Party's new deputy finance critic.
Albas, who had served as the Opposition critic for internal trade, where he championed the recent #FreeTheBeer campaign to end interprovincial trade barriers, said he was honoured to be named to the position by interim Conservative leaderRona Ambrose.
And he called the finance portfolio critically important, especially now with forecasts that Liberal government's spending may be much larger than originally indicated.
“Last week the TD Bank predicted the (federal) Liberal (government's deficit) will be $5 billion more than the $30 billion already forecast. That is more debt in a single year than the Liberals promised to add over their entire four-year term," said Albas Monday.
Earlier this year, Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau increased the projected deficit this year to $30 billion from the original $10 billion projected when the Liberal came to power a year ago.
"Incurring this debt has not created the level of growth the Liberals
promised during the 2015 campaign and will have to be paid back with interest."
In his new role, Albas will work with Quebec MP for Louis-Saint-Laurent, Gérard Deltell, who Ambrose named as the new finance critic on Monday. He replaces Lisa Raitt, who announced on Friday she was stepping down as finance critic to run for the party's leadership.
The Tories will elect a permanent successor to Stephen Harper next spring.