The Parliamentary Budget Officer has said—and there's been a lot of debate around this—and government members will say and the bank governor has said that eight out of 10 families are better off with the rebates. The PBO said that when you take into account the economic effects, it's six out of 10. Certainly, an economic effect is the Bank of Canada's policy rate.
In a world where the carbon tax doesn't exist, in all likelihood the bank governor would have reduced rates yesterday, saving literally millions of Canadians thousands of dollars on their mortgages.
I think it's reasonable to ask—and when the bank governor is here I'll ask him this question as well—what the knock-off effects are of the carbon tax on their ability to reduce rates.
On productivity, it's interesting. In 2022, the finance minister said in her 2022 budget that productivity was the achilles heel of the Canadian economy. Then, just a few weeks ago, we had Carolyn Rogers, deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, saying that we have a productivity emergency and to break the glass. Of course, we heard Mr. Cross earlier tell us that GDP per capita is as low now as it was in 2018.
Could you elaborate on your concerns around the productivity crisis and whether or not you have any confidence in the current government to be able to do anything about it after almost nine years in power?