Of course—no problem.
My questions will be for Mr. Dachis.
I will say that this panel is fantastic. Honestly, I would like to ask every one of you questions, but I'm going to focus on Mr. Dachis.
I just want to make a bit of a statement. Then I'll get to my question, Mr. Dachis.
Given that the Liberal-NDP government has been spending taxpayer dollars at an almost incredible rate—a hundred billion dollars more a year than it did in 2019 or pre-COVID—creating what is projected to be a $46-billion deficit and increasing spending on average by $13 billion every six months, we know that this NDP-Liberal government will be unable to stop themselves from spending increases, even though they promised significant cuts to the government going forward.
We also know that if this government does not balance the budget we will be committed to high inflation and high interest rates for the foreseeable future and a worsening economy. If you don't believe me, here's a list of individuals who link deficits to high inflation and high interest rates: John Manley, former Liberal finance minister; Bill Morneau, former Liberal finance minister; Chrystia Freeland, current finance minister; David Dodge, former Bank of Canada Governor; and Tiff Macklem, current governor of the Bank of Canada. All these individuals from multiple political spectrums agree that the more this government spends, the worse the economy gets.
Given that, and given that the government won't stop spending, here's my question. There will be a tax increase coming from this government, Mr. Dachis. In order to balance the budget, how much would the HST have to be increased by to balance our budget?