Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions will be directed to Ms. Yalnizyan.
Thank you so much for joining us today. I'll let you know that I was as enthralled by your testimony as my colleague Mr. Poilievre was by that of Mr. Cross.
I'll pick up where the last questioning left off, on the cost of servicing this debt.
Of course, it's something that's on everyone's mind. We don't want to be irresponsible, but I think one of the points you articulated very well was that there is a need to look at the benefits of some of these measures as well, and a need to recognize that in fact the virus created the need to respond. It effectively created the debt that we're dealing with.
I want to give you the opportunity to talk about the cost of inaction had we not chosen to have the federal government assume this debt and had we left it to individual households and business owners. I can tell you from my experience in the constituency that the consequences would have been far greater because there would have been widespread bankruptcy of half the businesses in my community and kids without food on the table.
I'm curious as to whether you can give some perspective on what the cost of inaction would have been if we had chosen not to have such an aggressive intervention in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.