Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
We've seen an evolving theme as we've been doing this study for several weeks now and hearing from a lot of different witnesses. The picture is obviously that there are Canadians struggling with household debt. I think the high inflation that ended about a year and a half ago is starting to offer some relief. I heard the comments that wages aren't keeping up with inflation. Actually, the truth is that wages have exceeded inflation in the last 12 months since Prime Minister Carney came into office. That is what we are seeing.
What I really want to focus on—and am interested in—is Professor d'Astous's talk about behaviour and how it affects people's decisions.
Professor, we're seeing a lot of financial institutions offering instalment-style payments. Even credit cards now with BMO or whomever are offering that you can make the payments over several months. Digital banking platforms are offering special deals. This is something that we weren't subjected to previously. Is this creating more problems for people?
As they break these payments down into smaller amounts, do they make bad choices as consumers? Can you comment on that?