Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  We have no objection to this amendment. I can simply say that the reason we put three years was originally to facilitate the recruitment of the parliamentary budget officer. Our thinking at the time was that perhaps if your're looking for someone in the academic community to come and occupy that position, it would be easier to recruit that person if he or she were to commit to a shorter period than seven years.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you. I'm the assistant deputy minister of fiscal and economic policy in the Department of Finance. I just want to confirm what my colleague just said about the mandate of the parliamentary budget office and the mandate of the Auditor General. I understand that the Auditor General, in her appearance here, made the statement that her mandate and the mandate of the parliamentary budget officer are quite different.

Finance committee  Bill C-48 gave the government authority to provide up to $1.5 billion. The government has now provided $1 billion.

Finance committee  It is for post-secondary education infrastructure, yes.

Finance committee  You have to look at the cause of the exchange rate movements. In the past few years the appreciation we have seen has resulted largely from the run-up in commodity prices, and in particular energy prices. In this case, of course, the impact will be much less. There will be some regional impact, an impact that will require adjustment, but the impact in a macro policy sense will be much less than if it were to occur by a run against a currency or a portfolio shift, as the economists would describe it.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I will certainly not try to do the job of the Governor of the Bank of Canada. All I will say is that the private sector forecasts we are using for planning purposes assume, or have built in, some increase in interest rates in 2006. The short-term rates are projected to average about 4.4%, if I recall, compared to an average of 2.7% in 2005, so it's already built into the forecasts of private sector economists.

Finance committee  I would say that when proposals are brought to cabinet for discussion on a new program, the department would normally include in their cost estimate the cost of administering the program.

Finance committee  That is right, yes.

Finance committee  I mentioned a little while ago that the federal debt came to $494.4 billion.

Finance committee  I was talking about an increase for one year. The debt is not renewable each year. Part of the debt is short-term, renewable quarterly, semiannually or within a year, but there is also a part of the debt spread out over 15 years, or even 20 years.

Finance committee  No, all the measures proposed in the post-fall update would not be included, unless confirmed by the government. All the measures in this budget are not reflected in the mains.

Finance committee  It will be in the supplementary estimates, yes.

Finance committee  Reduction of the debt burden results from reimbursement of the debt, that is, from $8 billion to $3 billion, but especially from growth of the economy. It is important to consider the debt burden in relation to the size of the economy, that is, the capacity of Canadian taxpayers to assume this debt.

Finance committee  We can always have all sorts of wishes and say that it would be preferable not to have any debts. What I see, myself, is that we are making huge progress and we are going to continue to make progress so as to deal with future demographic pressures. Reduction of the debt burden also results in a reduction of the share of government revenue that is devoted to payment of interest on the debt.