Finance committee  It is not, I would argue, because of the measures that this government and previous governments have taken to manage our debt down to put us on a downward track in terms of debt to GDP and the underlying size of the debt. If the question is what component of our interest rates i

Finance committee  Yes, there's a chapter. First of all, I stand corrected. I said budget 2013. That's what we are beginning to work on now. The minister is out consulting on this. Of course, it was budget 2012 I was referring to.

Finance committee  In budget 2012, there's a chapter devoted to our debt management strategy.

Finance committee  It's a very complex area. I think to start it's perhaps important to remind the committee that the government through budget 2013, through Canada's economic action plan 2013, adopted what I think outside observers consider to be a very balanced approach in terms of austerity or

Finance committee  There are two entries in supplementary estimates (B) related to interest costs. The first is interest on unmatured debt, with a total estimate today of $18.5 billion or $18.6 billion. Then a separate entry just a few lines below on other interest costs. The presentation of our i

Finance committee  Oui. At the time of budget 2012 our interest rate projection for short-term interest rates was .93% for the T-bills. For the 10-year bonds it was 2.78%.

Finance committee  I'm afraid I don't have that information. We would have to try to get back—

Finance committee  Our basis for projecting interest rates is the consensus of private sector economists, and this has been the basis of our projections for almost 20 years I think, going back to 1993-94. So we survey leading private sector economists in the country quarterly and take the consensus

Finance committee  In these supplementary estimates, for the first time the government is presenting its interest costs against that in two separate ways. The separate statutory presentation of the interest on unmatured debt, which is the outstanding bonds and certificates of indebtedness that have

Finance committee  Yes, that's right.

Finance committee  I can share with you what we have in terms of the projection base for interest rates, in both the short term and the long term.

Finance committee  I'm not sure if there's a particular OECD recommendation that you had in mind in terms of best practice, but the Government of Canada is an active member of the OECD and is always looking at recommendations and best practices to improve transparency and the flow of information.