Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of my hon. colleague. He has hit the nub of the issue which is the entire economic climate.
As my hon. colleague mentioned, the governor of the Bank of Canada appeared before the finance committee yesterday. The governor indicated the slight increase in interest rates was of concern to some but would not adversely affect consumer demand for products. He said there were few levers the Bank of Canada could use but that it was focusing on interest rates and inflation.
My hon. colleague talked about levers of power. Does he see the government as having more levers to affect the economy? He touched on some of them. One he did not touch on is our high debt. Canada has over $500 million of debt, an amount that has increased under the Liberal government. Could my hon. colleague address how that might affect the environment we are talking about?