I'd like to get the officials to tell us how much debt the government will add this year and how much the Bank of Canada's holding of government debt will increase in this fiscal year.
While they are searching for those numbers, I'll just answer the minister's question to me as to whether Conservatives believe in the independence of the Bank of Canada: Of course we do.
She cites Jim Flaherty. Not only did he believe in the independence of the Bank of Canada, but he also never funded his deficits by having the Bank of Canada print money to lend it to the government.
In fact, throughout the entire great global recession, we never relied on the bank to print cash to fund our operations. That is something that this minister and this government are doing. They are dependent on the bank, and therefore cannot be independent from it.
To go back to my question, how much will the debt grow this year, and how much of that debt is being newly held by the Bank of Canada?