Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Budget 2016 proposed adjustments to the Royal Canadian Mint Act. Amendments to the act are proposed to facilitate effective and efficient operation of the Royal Canadian Mint. The following are the proposed amendments. First, clause 136 amends the Royal Ca

Finance committee  The Royal Canadian Mint is already selling and buying gold. It's only that we're clarifying the fact that they are allowed to do it by precisely writing it into the legislation. It's not there now.

Finance committee  That's right. Basically, they're not buying gold from individuals right now.

Finance committee  No, they won't be allowed to buy gold from individuals. They're only going to continue to buy gold in order to produce coins.

Finance committee  Exactly.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're here to present and answer your questions on division 2 of part 4, clause 103 of the budget implementation act, which introduces the proposed borrowing authority act. This act authorizes the Minister of Finance to borrow on behalf of the crown and pro

Finance committee  No, it's no problem.

Finance committee  The thing that has to be taken into account is the government's capacity to make payments. We are talking about just over a trillion dollars of debt—billion in French, if we use the correct term. As a share of GDP, that's 50%. From that standpoint, when you compare Canada with ot

Finance committee  I admit that the decision to do it every three years is somewhat an arbitrary one. However, it would be extremely onerous to have to return to Parliament every year to set a new borrowing limit. It's about the same as the current system; all we are doing is examining the debt flo

Finance committee  First of all, I'd like to clarify something about the three-year time frame I was talking about. The government of the day can decide to adjust the borrowing limit every year, if it wishes. Under the proposed measure, the government would have to return to Parliament at least on

Finance committee  I beg your pardon?

Finance committee  It doesn't, no. No loan guarantees are included in this number.

Finance committee  You're totally correct. My statement was that Canada is the only country with a AAA rating from all the rating agencies—

Finance committee  I'm not done with my statement. I also said “with positive interest rates along the curve”, which is not the case in Germany right now because there are some sections of the interest curve that are still negative in Germany. But you're totally right that Germany also has a AAA ra

Finance committee  It will be more transparent in the sense that the public can now know the facts, since the facts will be reported at least once every three years. Under our current system, only the marginal increase in the debt is reviewed each year. It may be slightly more difficult for Canadi