Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Giroux and Ms. Yan. Once again, I'd like to join my colleagues in thanking you for the work you do. It's very helpful and widely used. It's very important for us to have access to an objective point of view on everything pertaining to the budget so that we can do our work effectively.
My questions will begin by addressing your note on the estimation of the sales tax for luxury goods, and the update to this note that was published this morning.
I'll begin with a comment, a reminder to the effect that when we talk about public debt in Canada, it's important to also look at provincial debt. Just about every year, you provide an update in the fiscal sustainability report. In the end, it's the provinces that bear the financial burden.
The committee asked the Department of Finance whether it had, before introducing the sales tax on luxury goods, conducted a study on the impact on the targeted industries in order to identify potential impacts, such as how many jobs and how much revenue would be lost. This was not done, and I believe that it was a serious omission.
I'd like to ask you some questions in order to clearly understand what the boundaries of your study were.
You began by estimating the costs and revenue for the state, for the federal government, but not their impact on the industries affected. Is that correct?