Absolutely. It's important to keep in mind that not all types of spending are stimulus. I don't know of any economist who is saying turn off the spending taps. There are obviously a lot of Canadians and businesses out there still needing support. However, support programs aren't meant to be stimulus. Stimulus spending is when governments step in to spur demand when it's absent in the market. They're stimulating demand.
When we look at some of the data that came out this week from the Bank of Canada about the business outlook survey and the consumer confidence survey, we know that there is pent-up demand in the economy. Businesses are planning on investments in anticipation of this being released, and consumers are planning on spending more after vaccinations are widespread, even if their income expectations remain the same. There's quite a bit of savings in bank accounts right now that might be released.
While we need support programs, we do not necessarily need stimulus for the sake of jump-starting demand. It's ready to be released. It's not fiscal policy that will release it, but rather health policy. Nothing will have a greater impact on our economic growth than getting the pandemic under control. That's why our position is that any government spending should focus on those longer-term competitiveness issues when it comes to the regulatory burden between productivity, removing interprovincial trade barriers, and infrastructure spending to a certain extent—not for shovel-ready stimulus but for improving our long-term competitiveness.