The government ran a very large deficit during the worse days of the pandemic and rightly so, and so did governments around the world. Those deficits resulted from the emergency programs that were put in place, including the CERB, the various versions of the CERB and the wage subsidies intended to try to retain employment relationships between workers and employers at a time when there was no work that could be done for health reasons. Those deficits occurred at a time of weak inflation and, in fact, for a short period of time during the pandemic, disinflation. Consumer prices were falling in Canada, and moreover, those deficits—
On October 19th, 2023. See this statement in context.