Okay.
Evidence of meeting #9 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was als.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #9 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was als.
A video is available from Parliament.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
What's your point of order? I thought we had agreement to end at 6:15.
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Falk hasn't had an opportunity to speak. I understood that he was going to be getting Peter's two and a half minutes. I don't think anyone would object if Mr. Falk had an opportunity to make an intervention. It would take us to 6:20.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Are you okay with that, Mr. Julian?
Mr. Falk, you're on. I'm glad you get two and a half minutes.
December 3rd, 2020 / 6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Easter.
I have a question for Mr. Mintz.
Mr. Booth mentioned in his presentation the danger of inflation and how that disproportionately affects people of lower income. What we're seeing is that the Bank of Canada has committed to maintaining inflation at about 2%. They're doing that by adding hundreds of billions of dollars that they've given the government to disburse.
You talked about ineffective spending back in October in an article in the Financial Post. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that and also on the impact that this massive debt is going to have on people in the lower part of the economy?
6:20 p.m.
President's Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, As an Individual
What I tried to talk about earlier is the concern that I just mentioned about overzealous spending that can lead to more debt and then, of course, potentially more inflation. We don't have inflationary pressures right now, and we may not see them for several years or a couple of years, but it could happen.
When inflation takes off, you get serious devaluation in the dollar, and that's another problem that comes along with it. I will just very quickly tell you that one of the saddest situations I've ever been involved in was when I was working for the World Bank doing work in Bulgaria. It was just after their huge devaluation that they went into because they ran very large deficits during that period around 1998. The saddest thing was seeing very poor people, people on fixed incomes who tend to be pensioners and others who really suffered when prices doubled in just one year.
That's why economists often talk about inflation tending to be really hardest on lower-income people and people with fixed incomes, because they don't have an offset from that inflation.
6:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I hate to have to rush meetings, as we did this one, but it's the world we live in, I guess.
Thank you to all the witnesses for coming and responding to our questions. As I said, this wouldn't be the first time we had some disagreements at committee. That's how we learn, by having a few disagreements.
With that, thank you very much. The committee will meet on Monday night.
The meeting is adjourned.