Thank you.
I do just also for the record, Mr. Chair, want to comment on what Mr. Grewal had said earlier. In commenting on the debt-to-GDP ratio being projected perhaps to drop to 29% versus 31%, he characterized that as a commitment that they had made. I want to remind the committee that the commitment that was made in the election campaign was not a 31% debt-to-GDP ratio. It was in fact to run a maximum $10-billion deficit with a return to surplus by 2019.
Having said that, I'll go to the questions and pick up perhaps on a theme arising from a response to the very first questions that my colleague, Mr. Sorbara, raised, and this was in regard to the negative impact on the housing market and on Canadian households when interest rates rise as they're expected to do.
We have heard throughout, in this panel and in the earlier one, about just how difficult it is to forecast the future and all of the different factors. We've heard repeatedly that there are an infinite number of variables and so it's very hard to know for certain what is ahead of us.
How much risk is there to projections of a reduced debt-to-GDP ratio and indeed to continue increased deficits that are ultimately, as my colleague, Mr. Poilievre, pointed out, borne by Canadian households through taxes? What are the risks of these projections not being made if, for example, there was even a slightly larger rise in interest rates than what you have already included in your projections?