Evidence of meeting #32 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Thanks for the question.
It's very true that what has been so difficult about trying to provide a sense of the government's fiscal situation on a go-forward basis is the economic uncertainty. Of course, that economic uncertainty is really tied to some basic scientific uncertainty about the transmission of the virus. We've had a lot of success in recent weeks in flattening that curve—not as much as we'd like, but I think the officials across the country who work on public health have had some success in that area. This, of course, is what's guiding decisions, mostly in the hands of provincial and territorial governments, about opening parts of their economy.
To answer your question, a lot of the decisions and the go-forward situation will have to do with how successful those reopenings are. Even if we see some early signs of success, I think there's still a great deal of uncertainty with respect to potential resurgence of the virus later. There's a great deal of uncertainty about those questions. Even at the scientific level, there are questions about how immunity works, how the virus is transmitted and what will happen when the colder weather comes in.
Those are the kinds of factors that are making it hard to come up with a point estimate. I would note that even organizations like the Bank of Canada have not come up with point estimates; they are looking at ranges. The kind of work we're doing is much more based on looking at ranges and scenarios, as opposed to having specific figures.
However, I know that's what the interest is in, and that work is under way.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Thank you for that.
I just have a quick question on some of the work the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity has been doing around quality-of-life indicators. I would have loved to have the opportunity to ask the minister when she was here earlier.
One of the things I'm having a hard time with, for some members of my community, is that everybody is anxious to see the economic recovery. Of course, we're not through the emergency yet. I think there's a really unique opportunity in front of us.
If we are to believe some of the polling data from firms that make their data publicly available, a significant majority of Canadians are expecting some kind of really serious social and economic reforms coming out of this crisis. One of things that I think are going to be essential will be to understand what we're measuring if we're hoping to achieve success. I think it would be easy to try to restore the status quo that existed pre-COVID. I think if we want to turn our imagination on, we can start realizing that maybe GDP and unemployment are not the only things we can measure and that we should turn our minds to things like poverty reduction, access to a clean environment, access to primary care, or whatever it may be.
I'm curious as to whether you think we have an opportunity to accelerate the minister's mandate letter item about developing quality-of-life indicators in a timely way so we could actually use some of the work that's being done to help guide the economic recovery once the time is right.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
You raise a really important point. In fact, the minister has been active in encouraging her colleagues to consider these issues. I very much think this government has been taking into account broader issues, as have many governments, in fact. The fact that we have been willing to shut down our economy in order to preserve our health, particularly that of vulnerable populations, is a sign that we all recognize that this is important.
A lot of work is under way across departments in terms of thinking about what it would look like if we incorporated quality-of-life indicators more explicitly. I think we are doing it in a broad sense already. A lot of decisions so far in terms of the response to this crisis have been reflective of considerations of vulnerable populations and thinking about health impacts and other types of impacts.
I very much agree with you that this is an opportunity for us. From a policy standpoint, all parts of this government are beginning to think that way in terms of the longer-term economy that we are returning to, some of the structural changes that are taking place, and what's going to be needed to support Canada's success in that new environment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I thought, Ms. McDermott, that you might be saying that we'd expect the parliamentary secretary to push the Minister of Finance on some of those points.
With that, we will have to close. Thank you all for your time, for your presentations and for the report.
The meeting is adjourned.