Finance committee  Thank you. That's a very important question. Since our last MPR, there has been a major shift in the policy stance in Japan. There's been a fiscal expansion of a little more than two percentage points, and they have moved to a 2% inflation target. The monetary policy framework

Finance committee  Without question, it has supported the growth of household debt. Authorities, including the federal government, this Parliament, in terms of budgets, and the Bank of Canada had to make a judgment on how to support this economy, given the collapse of external demand for Canadian g

Finance committee  Our employment rate is about 62%. As for what it was pre-recession, I don't have that figure at hand. It would be lower than it was pre-recession, because the labour force has continued to grow. I think we're off—and I'll add this to our written submission—just under two percenta

Finance committee  We haven't recovered, but I caution you there a bit. The recession coincided with the start of the demographic adjustment, which, as this committee would know, is actually pretty severe over the course of the next decade. So you do get into those higher-age cohorts—the fifties—wh

Finance committee  We absolutely stand by the statements. Mr. Macklem, in effect, repeated them in his recent speech, which Mr. Hoback referenced. There is a chart that looks at Canadian business investment relative to history. We're about average. It's solid. It's not spectacular. It's a little

Finance committee  It's really a question for the government, but I know the answer. Historically, the responsible minister was the Minister for HRSDC, Human Resources and Skills Development. I believe—and I'll be corrected by members of this committee—that now there's a joint responsibility with t

Finance committee  Anyway, we'll get you the figure. That's another aspect of there being some slack in the—

Finance committee  Yes, we have slack in the labour market. The unemployment rate is higher than it was before. But, again, I think the spirit of the question was about how we have done relative to others, given the shock to demand that's happened globally, and it is quite distinct.

Finance committee  That's an easy one, yes. The interesting proposal by the IMF a few years ago.... I'll get my acronyms wrong; it might have been the so-called fat taxes, as you were referencing. But related to taxes on wholesale borrowing by banks, it was to reduce the incentive for banks to bor

Finance committee  Whoa.... Well, thank you, Chair.

Finance committee  In general—in general—analysis of relative efficiency of tax from a revenue perspective, from a non-distorting of economic activity perspective.... In general, value-added taxes are the most efficient mechanism. There are issues.... As with all tax policy, though, one has to worr

Finance committee  Yes. Thank you for the question. It's an important one. One of the things we've been doing...and I hesitate to suggest things to my successor and successors on the governing council, but periodic review of forecasting, and public discussion, debate, whether at this committee or

Finance committee  Okay, but very quickly, the second point is that what we've tried to do as well, and we can continue to improve this, is to make clear.... One of the key things is, what are the key assumptions in the forecast and what drives the forecast? What I would like to leave this committe

Finance committee  It's one of the issues, which means there is a weaker demand from the U.S., all things being equal, than there would be otherwise. In Canada it is one of the aspects of the slack in the labour market. It is still considerable. It is consistent with a substantial monetary policy s

Finance committee  I think parliamentarians and Canadians, as the ultimate consumers of that information, are as good at judging as we at the Bank of Canada are the value of an independent assessment of the fiscal position and elements of the fiscal position.