Finance committee  That's correct. A large number of programs do not actually provide enough information on their performance, or they change the performance criteria during the year so it would be very hard to actually measure the performance at the end of the year.

Finance committee  We didn't request that information. That's information that's supposed to be tabled every year by the departments in their performance reports, and some of those programs do not have the information that is required.

Finance committee  No, we have not done that yet.

Finance committee  Well, typically because we have a progressive tax system, taxes tend to increase more than the growth in GDP over time because of that bracket creep over time. People move up to a higher bracket and pay higher taxes, so there is a small increase over time, an improvement in the b

Finance committee  We have not explicitly taken into account any of these trade deals. CETA is new. It hasn't really been implemented, so there's really no point in doing that. As I said, we have to do a study to have a better idea of its effect. The other trade deals that have already been done,

Finance committee  If I could just add one point, I think you're right: there will be competition for skilled immigrants. That's one reason we have actually done some simulations in the past, in terms of whether raising immigration levels would actually help deal with the issue of long-term fiscal

Finance committee  That's a very good question, sir. In fact, typically six years after a recession we should be in a situation where the global growth has sort of stabilized and there is really no issue. There are a number of risks and issues that have caused this sort of instability in global gr

Finance committee  No, in fact it's a reality. In Europe the fiscal budget compression obviously was recommended by the European Commission.

Finance committee  Typically, sir, during any recession period, one of the major players in the economy, which would be government, can actually help by boosting spending or reducing taxes to kick-start the economy. Just in response to your question whether it's a theory or a reality, the Internat

Finance committee  About thirty...

Finance committee  Yes, 31% or 32% is right.

Finance committee  I think that by the end of the full projection period, in 2019-20—

Finance committee  —we are almost 25%.

Finance committee  That's a result of the very deep recession that created a huge excess capacity in the economy and that's why inflation has remained low and the Bank of Canada was able to maintain interest rates at a very low level, of 1% now.

Finance committee  Yes, we have our own projection, obviously, which is different from the private sector's, so our growth profile for the real GDP is somewhat different from the private sector forecast. Also, there are two elements to that, which are the real GDP and the prices. The combination of