I am tempted to give my time to Mr. Morrice as well. I'll refrain from that, even though I do quite enjoy Mr. Morrice. I'm sure his questions will be excellent.
I want to have a serious discussion with our friends today. They are great witnesses. It would be great if we had some more, as per Mr. Baker's comments.
When we look at these issues, I get in mind where we would like to be—I don't think anyone here would disagree—which is in a situation where no one needed to get a payday loan or comparables.
I look at the fact that we have record food bank usage, and we have had high inflation. The Governor of the Bank of Canada came before this very committee and said that the carbon tax alone was represented in 20% of inflation, including 20% of food inflation. If we saw a dramatic decrease in inflation, one would only think that it would be logical that the reliance on high-interest loans would be dramatically decreased. Do you think that has any solvency? I know that hasn't been...certainly in the responses I've been hearing.
I have to think that the underlying poverty issue.... You can't legislate prosperity. That is 100% clear. What we really need is for the economy to start rolling. We need higher levels of productivity so that more people are helped by not needing the help of government.
The floor is yours, my friends.