Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Wudrick, I want to ask you about the carbon tax. Back in your time at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, you said that the carbon tax represents high costs for millions of Canadian families and businesses, causing significant economic pain in exchange for no economic gain.
It's the economic pain part that I want to talk to you about as it relates to the Bank of Canada's decision yesterday to hold their policy rate at 5%. Right now the inflation rate in Canada is roughly 2.8%. We had the bank governor at committee back on October 30. He said that the carbon tax contributes 0.6% to inflation. After April 1, it went up by 0.15%, so today the carbon tax represents 0.75% of the 2.8% inflation rate.
In other words, if the carbon tax had been eliminated, inflation yesterday, when the bank governor decided to hold fast on the overnight policy rate, would have been 2%, right on target.
From my perspective, it would have been very difficult for the bank governor not to reduce the policy rate if the inflation rate had been 2%. Would you agree with that analysis?