Thank you very much. I just turned 38 a few days ago, so you made me feel young. Forty is two years away, though, so reality sets in.
Mr. Milligan, I know the focus of your testimony this morning is the GIS. If I have time I will ask you a question about the GIS, but I do want to ask you a question before that on general principles here with respect to budgets and balanced budgets. You've been quite open on focusing on this issue, talking about debt-to-GDP ratio and things along those lines. Specifically, I want to ask you a general, but important question.
There are two currents of thought, roughly speaking, in Canada. One would advocate that we continue to invest in people by investing in infrastructure, our indigenous people, students, science and research, and certainly the GIS fits into that as an important social policy. While we would carry a deficit, investing in people is the way to really make sure that we have good, strong economic, and quite frankly, social health in the body politic. The other current of thought is that we should balance the budget at all costs, and do so immediately.
What would be the consequences, the economic consequences since you're an economist, but also the social consequences of balancing the budget immediately? For example, if in 2019 we carried a balanced budget at all costs, what would be the result of that?