Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I too would like to welcome the representatives from the banking and credit union sector, as well as from the Conference Board of Canada. It is always a pleasure to hear the points of view of such well-informed people.
Although we are not going to use it as the basis for major decisions, I would just like to start with a story that may explain why, where budgetary forecasts are concerned, my name is Thomas for a reason. When Catherine and I wanted to buy our first house at Cap-Rouge in the early 1980s, we went to see the Caisse populaire Notre-Dame-du-Chemin on the Avenue des Érables. The manager told us very nicely that mortgage rates were an unheard-of 13.5%. So there was no way we should take out a mortgage for more than one year because the rates were definitely going to change. He was right. When we renewed our mortgage a year later, the rate was 20.75%. One learns from one's mistakes.
I found the presentation from the Mouvement Desjardins to be very interesting and pertinent, but I would still like to ask you a question. I share your point of view entirely. What we are living through at the moment is not at all typical, and I am very concerned. I have seen the slow-down since the summer and, once more, several tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the manufacturing sector. These are well-paid jobs, often full-time, with a pension at retirement. The words sustainable development are often used in the context of the environment, but we forget that it also includes the question of who is going to be leaving future generations with debts and obligations. We may be thinking about solutions that are too short-term.
You mentioned that inflation is very low. That caught my attention because, historically, when there is a huge debt, governments are tempted to pay it down by using inflation. What better than reimbursing the Chinese with a four to one ratio? It is like a sale at Dollarama. What makes you sure that inflation can stay low when we have printed 6,000 billion dollars since the start of the crisis? How can we repay that debt without inflation? I really want people to admire Canada, I really want us to pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves that we are better than anybody else, but really, realistically, I do not see how you can be so confident that, in the medium term, massive inflation will not be considered the only way to pay everything back.