Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses, to the Parliamentary Budget Officer and to your team, and thank you for the work you do on behalf of parliamentarians and all Canadians.
I need a bit of help on one of the statements that came out of your office lately on government spending. “There is policy room to permanently increase spending or reduce the tax burden by 1.4 per cent of GDP ($28.2 billion in 2014-15) while maintaining the stability of public debt over a 75-year horizon.”
I need some help here trying to figure out how you can.... I understand a one-year projection, that's pretty easy, or even four or five years. But how can you project what's going to happen with public debt over a 75-year horizon?
I remember 20% interest rates in the eighties, and they were not pretty. A lot of things can happen in the world that are way beyond government's control, so I wonder how you can think about a 75-year horizon.