Thank you very much for that question.
I would argue that the longer-term debt-to-GDP ratio, in a sense, is the responsibility of this group and your successors. But what is important is that we are going through a recession; we are going through a period when, because of fear, businesses are spending less, consumers are spending less. And it is absolutely critical, in a sense, to stabilize the economy, to the keep the economy functioning near potential output. Clearly, fiscal policy has an important role to play to stimulate the economy, just as monetary policy does.
There are automatic stabilizers, obviously, in a recession. There will be less tax revenue, so one should not be panicking at seeing a deficit. It reflects the fact that the only way people can save more is that somebody has to use the savings, somebody has to run a deficit. And if there is not investment because businesses are not running the deficit, then the government does, and that helps stabilize the economy.
This is a cyclical deficit. This is a temporary situation. What is important for the long-term fiscal health of the Canadian economy is that it remains temporary, and that the decision-makers' policies stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio.
In terms of where we are, Canada has probably the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio certainly among the G-7 countries, and beyond that, among many industrial countries. We are in a very, very strong fiscal position with very little risk of long-term deterioration.