Transport committee  That's not a good way to start my seven-year mandate. Thank you for inviting the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer to appear before you today to discuss our latest report on phase 1 of the infrastructure plan, released in August, and to provide you with an update following our March 2018 report.

Transport committee  These are on a full-time equivalent basis. There might be some part-time jobs in these numbers, but we have converted them into full-time equivalents, so these would be full-time jobs. Of course, if they are part-time jobs, they're converted to a full-time basis.

Transport committee  Good morning, Madam Chair, vice-chair, and members of the committee. Before I start, I would like to apologize for my intrusion while you were in camera. There was absolutely no sign outside and I didn't want to be late and so I entered the room. I'm sorry about that. I didn't want to listen to any secrets you might have been discussing.

Finance committee  To answer that question, we have to look at the economic situation of the households in its entirety. Over the years, interest rates have dropped markedly. The government mentioned it, as you did. I lived through it too, not when I bought my house, but a lot earlier. Interest rates were high.

Finance committee  Assuming we get what we can get from CRA, and what we expect to get from CRA, it looks like we will get all that is feasible for CRA to give us, but I'll get back to you on that once we have finalized the discussions with CRA.

Finance committee  Yes. Moreover, when one of the committee members asked the governor what keeps him awake at night, I wondered what my own answer would be. I sleep well at night, but one of the things that concerns me is the level of household debt. The rate of indebtedness has reached a very, very high level, despite the fact that interest rates are low.

Finance committee  It's quite clear that mom-and-pop shops will have absolutely no capacity to shift their taxable income from one country to the other. The type of profit shifting that we are anticipating as a result of the U.S. tax cuts will be done in vast majority by multinationals that have operations in both countries.

Finance committee  That's an interesting question, given the fight that my predecessor entered into with CRA. On the quality of data, my office received a first batch in February, and contrary to what people were fearing, we didn't receive boxes and boxes of paper documents. We received USB keys that were secure and protected despite not containing confidential taxpayer data.

Finance committee  Yes, probably.

Finance committee  Certainly, reducing the revenues of a Crown corporation such as CMHC and making sure that this reduced revenue is returned back into the hands of those who pay premiums would be akin to a tax cut. What would the impact of that be? Returning, let's say, $5 billion to households, businesses or a combination of both would provide stimulus to the economy.

Finance committee  To answer that question, I would probably go back to the fiscal sustainability report that I published last month, in which we looked at the federal finances over the next 75 years. I will spare you all the details, but the conclusion of the report is that if we maintain current policies over the next 75 years—and this is a projection, so it's purely an exercise—we show that there is fiscal flexibility of about $29 billion at the federal level.

Finance committee  We believe that there will be some profit shifting, and the amount that you mentioned is in our report. That amounts to about 1% of corporate income tax revenues, overall, in one year, as a result of some profit shifting, as you indicated. That's based on the current policy regime in the United States.

Finance committee  The first point I'd make is that the U.S. has reduced its tax rates, but they are bringing them into line with Canada's. Over the last several years the U.S. tax rates for corporate income tax were significantly above Canadian tax rates. Also, the U.S. tax cuts are temporary in nature.

Finance committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, vice-chairs and members of the committee. I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before you today to discuss our October 2018 economic and fiscal outlook, which we published last week, exactly a week ago. Consistent with the PBO's legislated mandate, my office produces an independent economic and fiscal outlook and today, as you mentioned, I am joined by Chris Matier and Trevor Shaw.

Government Operations committee  That's a very hypothetical question. It would be quite hazardous for me to try to answer because it depends on what would have been, what assumptions we make as to what the level of transfers would have been in the absence of past policy actions. For sure, if the health transfers were higher than they are now, the provinces would be in a better position.