Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, it's always a pleasure to have you here at committee. I'm sure you're always very busy, but it's nice of you to make the time to see us.
I want to take you on a vacation. Let's go to Mexico for a second. The Government of Mexico's average yield to maturity of their debt is around 18 years, and 59% of Mexico's debt is in 10-year bonds or longer.
In Canada, our average number of years to maturity is 6.9, and the number of 10-year bonds we issue as a percentage of our total debt is 33%. During COVID, 60% of the debt we issued was for three years or under. That's all renewed now at 4% or 5% interest rates instead of being locked in at, say, 1% for 10 years. In rough numbers, that's about $10 billion a year in extra interest payments.
Do you think the government made a mistake during COVID by issuing short-term debt instead of long-term debt?