Finance committee  You're absolutely right. The second quarter is probably going to be much weaker because of the fire, but that's mainly a timing issue. Once the rebuilding starts in Fort McMurray, actually, there's going to be a boost. It's not clear whether there's going to be a negative impact overall on the economy.

Finance committee  Well, we haven't really looked at every family structure. One thing we did in response to a request recently was to take eight selected families, which the member had selected, and provide the impact of the budget measures on those families. Those families are not necessary representative of the population, but those are the families that were selected by the member.

Finance committee  Our real interest at the end is the budgetary matters. To do fiscal projection, and to see how the fiscal situation is evolving, we need to have a view of the overall macroeconomic conditions and development, and that's what we focus on. A detailed micro-analysis of the different groups and different income groups in terms of how they're going to affect the economic growth is not something we have done.

Finance committee  As I said, certainly, those are all possibilities, that investment in education, investment in health, and investment in children may eventually add to productivity and economic activity, but those are for general principles, yes.

Finance committee  The definition of middle class really is a political definition, not a mathematical or economic definition. Depending on what ranges of income you decide, what level of wealth, people have different views of the middle class. There is really no one definition of middle class. I mean it's not something that we focus on, deciding exactly what the middle class is, which income level.

Finance committee  It's very hard to really put a time limit on this, but the fact of the matter is that with any kind of program like the TFSA, which essentially is a savings program, over time as that limit of savings increases, it's a reality that people who have higher income and higher wealth can benefit more from that program.

Finance committee  What we have seen is that, after 2013, 18% of people who had a TFSA had maximized their contribution. What has happened since then, we don't have that information, so we can't really tell. As I mentioned, in principle, as we move on, that percentage probably is going to drop because fewer and fewer people will have the capacity and the financial resources to benefit from the maximum amount of TFSA.

Finance committee  Yes, with your first point, people under $217,000 will benefit from...yes, definitely, and the 33% will essentially start after that.

Finance committee  There is no optimal level of federal debt-to-GDP ratio. It's something that's hard to determine, and it depends on the situation and circumstances. There are some estimates out there. Some people are talking about 80% or 60%, but it's not determined what the optimal rate is. That's not something we are focusing on in our reports.

Finance committee  That is not something we have looked at unfortunately, the impact of poverty on economic growth.

Finance committee  I think what we are doing typically is looking at the economic conditions and doing our projection, but we are not looking at a specific part of the population and how that would affect overall growth in the Canadian economy. Certainly there are impacts of poverty and people cannot spend money, but it's not something we have looked at.

Finance committee  Well, in general, about 18% of people who hold TFSAs have maximized their contribution.

Finance committee  We are working on a report that will look at the new child benefits program, with a distribution analysis of it. That will be ready, hopefully in the next few weeks. We haven't finished it, but it will come out.

Finance committee  Sir, we wouldn't say that he got it wrong. It is an estimate. We have an estimate that is slightly different. As I said, you have to look at these kinds of estimates and results as a range of possibilities rather than precise estimates. When the Department of Finance estimates jobs at 100,000, it is something that is coming from the models they have, with the assumptions they have made.

Finance committee  Unfortunately, these things cannot be precise. Another thing is that over time, it will be very hard to determine who was right or wrong, because things will change over time. In the next two years, we won't know whether 100,000 jobs were created because of the programs, or 60,000.