Mr. Speaker, the Bank of Canada rate rose three quarters of a per cent yesterday to over 7 per cent, driving up consumer loan rates. Since April the interest rate increases have added about $200 a month to payments on a mortgage of $100,000.
As the finance minister knows, our national house is mortgaged to the tune of $542 billion, on which we make payments of approximately $3.3 billion a month in interest alone.
Could the minister tell us what impact these interest rate increases over the past year are having on the national mortgage? Could he give us a precise dollar figure on how much these interest rate increases are costing the federal treasury since the government took office?