Thank you for that answer; it really puts Canada in the worst possible position compared to all other industrialized countries. It really is perplexing to so many Canadians that when other industrialized countries have been able to produce a budget, we have now been waiting for an unprecedented two years.
Another concern that has been raised around the fall economic statement is the issue of the revenue side of the equation. The government is not making any provision for wealth taxes or pandemic profit taxes; in fact it has rejected those scenarios, and yet we've seen Canada's billionaires increase their wealth by over $60 billion through this pandemic. I'm interested in asking about the revenue side. You did an excellent study on the wealth tax and evaluated the ability for a wealth tax to actually contribute to the overall fiscal framework of the government. I'm wondering—because the last study dates to before we saw an increase in assets among Canada's wealthiest citizens—whether the PBO is in the process of revising its overall figure in terms of how much a wealth tax would bring.
My other question is around the borrowing authority. There are concerns being raised about raising the borrowing authority. What are the alternatives, for example, on the revenue side, that would mean that raising the borrowing authority would not be necessary because the overall balance of federal finances was taken care of?