Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think Mr. Halverson will be best positioned to answer my question. I want to dig in a little on the cost of borrowing, given the nature of the conversation we've had to date.
The policy rate of the Bank of Canada, which is at the effective lower bound, is currently at 0.25%. The Conservatives keep raising fear about a potential 1% increase, which would represent a 500% increase if it were to shoot to 1.25% overnight. In any event, the Bank of Canada, during the testimony before this committee, has explained that there is no plan to do that for potentially the next few years, and in any event, the conditions that would justify such a radical increase would essentially tell a story that the economy is doing very well.
Mr. Halverson, to come back to this question, you explained previously that even if there were a short-term hike in the interest rate, the existing debt would need to term out first. I assume you mean that the term for each debt that's owed would have to pass before that would become due.
In your view, does this window of time, given the remaining term on debt that we hold, create an opportunity for us to effectively refinance our debt at a much lower interest rate, given what's happened in the world, so we can save significantly on borrowings that may be required to finance spending in response to the pandemic?