Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I too want to say hello to everyone. It's nice to see everyone. I look forward to seeing everyone in person next week.
I just want to address a bit of the melodramatic and in many cases disinformed talking points of Mr. Hallan. Inflation is indeed very, very painful. It's been painful for not only Canadians but also those around the world. I know that all of you are quite versed in this because I've mentioned it many times. An academic from Columbia University has talked about how the pandemic has had a massive impact on our global economy. That includes Canada. He has talked about how, when the pandemic first started, 95% of the world's economy suffered a simultaneous contraction. Basically, all the things that happened to the economy resulted in lost earnings. The $10 trillion U.S lost in the initial months of the pandemic was more than a tenth of the global GDP economy.
I say all these things to remind ourselves about what the massive global heart attack was to our economies. We're still trying to come out of it. Canada, as I think all of us know, continues to fight inflation. It continues to trend downward, which is great, but from an inflationary perspective, it is painful. We should also acknowledge that we are doing better from an inflationary perspective than other countries are.
I don't understand what Mr. Hallan is talking about in terms of the Canadian dream. We continue to see millions of people who want to come to Canada. We continue to be ranked one of the best countries in the world. We are blessed with a strong social welfare system, which has been greatly strengthened by our Liberal team over the last eight years. I'm very proud of our improvements.
In terms of the carbon tax, climate change is happening, which I want to remind some of our Conservative colleagues who might not understand that. Among economists, 99.5% have confirmed that a price on pollution is the cheapest and most effective way to reduce the emissions we don't want and spur the behaviour we're looking for.
In terms of food banks, I will definitely tell you that I am worried about that as well. After meeting with many of the people who offer food bank services in my riding, I know the number one issue is housing. I know that we have a housing study before us at this committee. It's very important for us to continue with that study. We have some clear work and some clear recommendations that I think we need to move forward on.
On this topic, I have been keeping in very close touch with my small businesses and with Davenport residents. I'm also very much worried, or on alert, let's say, about mortgage delinquencies, about credit card debt and about household debt. We have heard from some of our officials, who have come before our committee. My understanding is that mortgage delinquency rates still continue to be below historic averages. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about this topic. It is a very important topic. We need to continue to monitor it and continue to be there for Canadians if there's something we can do. Also, mortgage delinquencies do not equate to arrears. Mortgage arrears are at the lowest levels in decades at this moment.
In terms of bankruptcies, I know they're trending upwards. We have to look at that. My question is whether that's different from what we typically saw before the pandemic. Household debt is a red flag that has been raised for a very long period of time in Canada. We definitely have a household debt issue, but that's not just a result of the pandemic.
With that, I will turn the floor over to whoever wants to speak next. The bottom line for me is that this is an important topic. I think we need to find a way to address it, perhaps in one of the studies that are under way right now.
I'm also open, by the way, to Monsieur Ste-Marie's suggestion about having some extra meetings. The work we do is very important, so I don't mind having some extra time and extra meetings as long as we don't go off course. We have the fall economic statement and a number of other things to do, and we need to continue to keep on track. I don't think we want to go off track on all of those things.
Thank you so much.