Finance committee  If private investment doesn't grow, if we don't grow our capital base in the private sector, we can't become more competitive and productive down the road. We have clearly been affected by a loss of confidence in our economy. Since about 2010, in fact, we can track the data and s

Finance committee  This is actually a topic I raise at almost every talk I give. Because we are a federation, we have to take the federal debt and actually add the provincial debt, because there is only one taxpayer by province. I don't mean to pick on Quebec, but Quebec has the highest ratio, with

Finance committee  Infrastructure investment by the public sector builds a foundation for your entire economy. We're arguably in catch-up mode now. We've probably gone 25 years in this country of chronic under-investment in infrastructure, and that's one of the many contributing factors to a weak p

Finance committee  First off, I think we probably put too much weight on a balanced budget per se. That's an easy communication tool with the broader public. For an economist, the really important thing is your debt-to-GDP ratio. You're right that the ratio at the end of the budget planning period

Finance committee  Monsieur Caron, I'd love to be able to give you a material answer. Unfortunately, it's not a topic that we've studied in detail. I've learned that there are certain topics where angels should fear to tread, and so I think that on that one I'd just as soon take a pass. We can eit

Finance committee  Well, those are really the bottom end of the range. I have the privilege of being part of the circle of economists who give advice directly to finance ministers, and I told Mr. Morneau that he was the eleventh minister in my career. I was surprised, in fact, by how cautious some

Finance committee  I think for today's purposes, I'll touch on two things. The mandate of this committee is to examine all things fiscal, so let's talk a bit about tax. As a starting point, are we taxing the right things? Economists would prefer to tax consumption rather than taxing work effort

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Committee members, it's nice to be back again. I thought I could most add value to the committee's hearings by talking about things from a macro perspective and linking the budget to economic growth. I have four points I want to make on that f

Finance committee  I can't improve on that answer.

Finance committee  Well, we have more than 180 expenditures now built into our tax code for individuals and for businesses. When we add up all the expenditures for which we're giving people credit, such as different activities, we end up losing more more than $100 billion annually in revenue. These

Finance committee  The short answer is no. We focus on the analyses of the two pipeline projects, and the benefits are construction jobs, operation jobs, revenues for both levels of government—provincial and federal—and getting the world price for the product.

Finance committee  I think the starting point is that our personal income tax system is, in theory, a self-administered system, but probably two-thirds or more of us now pay somebody else to do our taxes for us. That's a sign that maybe we've gone a step too far in terms of building the complexity

Finance committee  We've actually done the analyses on both the Trans Mountain project and the Energy East project, and the numbers are clear. The economic benefits from both projects proceeding are massive. One of the biggest benefits.... There's a construction period and an operation period, but

Finance committee  Yes. We've done a lot of research for the federal government, for provinces, and for cities. Our research shows that $1 invested gives you more than $1 payback for the economy. It's one of the highest-priority forms of stimulus spending we could imagine.

Finance committee  There are a number of comments I could make. First of all, I think it's fair to say that most economists now think we have to rebalance our macroeconomic strategy and that we've reached a point where cutting interest rates further is pushing on a string. The Bank of Canada has d