Sir, maybe I'll do just a quick background on what this graph actually shows. What this graph measures, effectively, is the difference between what we call “potential output growth“ and “actual growth”. Potential growth is a number that the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada actually provide numbers on, so we look at their numbers.
They're basically working on the assumption that the economy reached its potential level in 2007, for the most part. Then what we've seen, basically, is weak growth in 2008, with the economy actually falling off in 2009. What we're actually showing here, sir, in terms of the darker line, is the difference between potential growth and actual growth. What you see, sir, is an experience that looks a lot more like the 1990s experience we had, unfortunately, where you have a fairly significant output gap that doesn't close very quickly.
I think that's pretty much consistent with the numbers that would be used by the Department of Finance, because they're using the same private sector numbers we're using--