Thank you, Mr. Chair.
That's a broad question. I would say the following.
The claim that our inflation problem is a global problem, is a half-truth—you can call it a cop out—because we had high inflation long before the war in Ukraine. It's not all just a supply side issue or caused by the pandemic.
Last fall, I was warning that inflation was ticking up towards 3%, 4%. Ultimately, the cause of high inflation is monetary. We've had very loose monetary policies for the last 10 or 15 years, and that is now showing up in high inflation. Couple that with a large fiscal deficit, which again gets monetized by the central bank—the central bank buys all those bonds—that puts cash in the system. They've been very slow in starting the so-called QT that they say they're now planning to do. It's very slow.
Couple together fiscal profligacy, very loose monetary policies and really, I think, perhaps an unrealistic road map in this budget, making rather rosy assumptions about growth that may not pan out, and we'll have a worse fiscal deficit.
I'm worried about both of those things, Mr. Chair.