Provencher Conservative MP Ted Falk says there's no question the Liberal government's fall economic statement Tuesday contained good news. It showed the Canadian economy is growing at a rate of 3.1 per cent this year and that 450,000 new jobs have been created. Falk says that 's good but adds none of the credit for that should go to the Liberals but rather to the U.S. and to the previous Conservative government.

"Certainly when our neighbours to the south are having a robust economy, if reflects positively on us. And, also, it is rewarding to see that a lot of the groundwork that was laid by the 

Ted FalkConservative Party and Prime Minister Harper is actually bearing traction and the Liberals are harvesting the fruit of our good work that we established while in government as Conservatives."

Falk says he remains concerned about the continued high level of deficit spending by the Liberals.

As far as the government's decision to increase the Canada Child Benefit, Falk has a mixed reaction.

"I want to be clear that I'm very supportive of measures that support families to enable people to have an easier time raising children because it is tough in today's economy to do that. But, when you're paying over $500 a month per child as a subsidy to families, that sounds like an excessive amount of money."

He notes the maximum payment per child under age six, for households earning $30,000 per year or less, is currently $533 dollars per month and that will be increasing each year by about eight dollars a month under a plan to index those payments to inflation. For children aged 6 to 17, the maximum payment is $450 per month and will go up each year by seven dollars. He believes the payments are getting to the point where they are a disincentive to people to continue working.

Falk says he believes the Liberals chose to release the statement this week to try and distract Canadians from the controversy that has been dogging the Finance Minister in recent weeks regarding disclosure of assets.