Sure. The fiscal position of Canada before the pandemic started was relatively sound, in the sense that our debt-to-GDP ratio was relatively low compared to other countries, at about 30%, which allowed the government to introduce fiscal measures as well as guarantee loans, as it has.
Even with the deficit that we mentioned in our scenario report, the deficit at $250 billion to $260 billion should result in a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 48% at the federal level, which still has some way to go before it reaches the record level it reached in 1995-96, which was 66.6% of GDP, so there is still some flexibility at the federal level to borrow or spend a bit more.
The difficult situation there would be to keep that temporary, because if these measures are extended or made permanent, then we would be in a situation where we'd have deficits year after year at a very significant level. In such a scenario, we could easily reach 66% of GDP, which was the record level reached in the 1990s.
While we still have some fiscal room for manoeuvre, we don't have that room for manoeuvre at the current levels for several years.