Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to my colleagues for agreeing to get together on fairly short notice.
I know that no one expected to be here this evening, but certainly the events of the last couple of weeks have captured the attention not just of Canadians but of people around the world. The events south of the border, with the downgrade of the credit rating of the United States and the subsequent market turmoil, and the sovereign debt crises in Europe have been of concern to many around the world and also to so many Canadians.
We know that the situation in Canada is very different from that in the United States. Our debt-to-GDP ratio is the best in the G-7. We know that we don't have a debt crisis in Canada. We do have other challenges, as we've raised many times in the House and here in committee. We have an unemployment problem, a jobs crisis that still concerns many Canadians.
Our purpose in recommending the study is that we examine the potential impacts on Canada of the uncertainties and economic problems, first of all, in our major trading partner, the United States, and also in Europe. What could be the potential impact on Canada, and what options are open to Canada so that we can best prepare ourselves going forward? We've also been concerned that the budget this spring dealt more with deficit and debt reduction than job creation. That's a concern that we have going forward. Are there opportunities now in a low interest rate environment to undertake greater strategic infrastructure investments that will better prepare Canada for a stronger recovery going forward?
Those are some of the things that we would like to look at.
We think that Canadians would like to be part of this discussion and that our role as parliamentarians is to ask the questions, to raise options for Canadians so that they can also be part of this discussion, and to reassure them that parliamentarians are working on economic issues and looking at the options going forward that will best prepare us for the future. That's the main reason we are calling for a study.
We know that in the past the government has been a bit challenged in terms of its deficit projections. Even this year the numbers overestimated our deficit by $13 billion, so things can change quite quickly. Where are we in terms of our fiscal projections, what numbers are we looking at, and what are our plans to protect Canadians going forward?
We believe that government has a role to play in terms of economic growth and development at a time when businesses are using a lot of their cash to pay down debt and therefore are not investing as we would like them to. Consumers are strapped with a lot of debt. The role of the government in terms of strategic infrastructure investment could be quite significant in transportation, telecommunications, and other kinds of infrastructure.
For that reason we would certainly like to hear from the minister and the Governor of the Bank of Canada, but we'd also like to hear from independent economists and a variety of voices so that Canadians can be brought into the debate and be reassured that as parliamentarians, as the finance committee, we are on top of the economic issues facing Canada and have fully examined the options going forward and feel confident about them. That's the rationale for calling the meeting this evening.