I think for the year that's currently under way the government is planning on a debt reduction of $10 billion. I would think this would be sufficient to ensure that the books stay at least in balance.
For future years, the government is planning on a debt reduction of $3 billion a year. Having said that, after accounting for the tax reduction measures announced in the October economic statement, in addition to the $3 billion a year, there's approximately $1.5 billion per year that is left over. So that's roughly $4.5 billion to $5 billion per year of either planned debt reduction or unallocated surpluses.
In the budget tables we provide rough rules of thumb for the budgetary impact of changes in economic developments. Certainly, very large changes in economic developments can lead to significant budgetary impacts. The one significant offset we have, now that we're in an environment of low inflation, is that one would expect that with a reduction in economic activity of the type you're alluding to, the interest rates would also adjust quite significantly, so there would be an offset.
So on balance, I would say that given the risks the country faces in the economy out there, the government's projections, as put out in the economic statement, are roughly balanced.