Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome, everyone.
I'd like to get an opinion. The PBO undertakes a certain set of analyses in a certain framework, and projects outward in terms of growth profiles. Our budget put in place a certain degree of prudence in terms of assumptions and in terms of the growth profile. We've seen in the first quarter somewhat of a tempering on the growth profile, and obviously, an exogenous shock to the economy with the fires in Alberta.
During that time, we came into some criticism in terms of being conservative in our forecast, but it seems to sort of play out that by being prudent in our growth forecast, we've actually done the right thing in how the economy has played out in the first quarter. We've had this exogenous shock and we will have a second half rebound.
I'd like to get your comments on that, because in some of the reports, I did see some commentary on that.