Thank you. I have six minutes, so I'm going to try to match my question with the timing of your answer. Thank you for that.
I have two things on that, quickly.
Mr. Poloz is the same man who said, in May 2021, “I can say flippantly not to worry about inflation”. I don't think we want to be going to his quotes.
Here's what I'm going to tell you, Minister. Your discussion around deflation is very interesting, and certainly I think shutting down our Canadian oil and gas sector sure doesn't help long-term growth in Canada, but right now what Canadians are worried about is the massive increase in everything. We have a two-decade high inflation increase.
About a week and a half ago, we couldn't even get your government to admit that inflation was a problem. Then you did admit it was a problem, but you said, “Well, it's not Canada's problem. It's happening globally.” You basically have no solution for it. When you're coming to our committee and defending your statement by saying that deflation is going to be the problem, not inflation, you're not admitting that you were wrong.
It's having a major effect on Canadians. You offer no solutions. You're saying, “Well, it's not really our problem. We're in government, but we're not going to do anything and maybe pump $7.2 billion or more into this problem.” That does not give comfort to Canadians who are dealing with high gas prices, high food costs and higher housing prices. These are real problems that everyday parents and seniors are dealing with. There's—