Finance committee  That's a very good question. Because there's only one taxpayer that supports all levels of government debt, I think it would be useful for parliamentarians and Canadians to look at government debt as an integrated debt. There's the federal debt that we focus on today, and that'

Finance committee  It's the assessment of one very important credit rating agency and it has signalled that at least some actors in the financial markets have confidence in the solidity and creditworthiness of Government of Canada bonds. In that sense, it's good news for governments in Canada, not

Finance committee  This is an important risk factor in our economic scenarios and forecasts. The rise in real estate prices means that those who want to access property must take on more debt. They therefore become more exposed to a potential increase in interest rates. This is part of a trend whe

Finance committee  To make such a calculation, we obviously need sales and profit data from comparable firms. We also need historical data to see what reasonable profits look like, as long as “reasonable” is defined. When a limited number of players largely dominate a sector, as is the case in the

Finance committee  What the government and the Department of Finance published in the budget is a worst-case scenario. What I would have liked to have seen in the budget was a status quo scenario—that is, what the fiscal track would look like, the budget or the debt would look like, without the bud

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. This is a very risky question for me as a non-partisan officer of Parliament. It's difficult for me to answer this question. My team and I will certainly focus on determining the economic impact of the measures announced in the budget. In particular,

Finance committee  Yes, you chose a particularly delicate question for me.

Finance committee  It's mostly due to better than expected economic activity, what we call “economic development”, so stronger economic activity and a stronger labour market than expected in the fall. That's the gist of the improvement. There are also some lower costs than expected for some COVID-r

Finance committee  That's a tough question. It's permanent to the extent that we have a five-year horizon. That's usually where the budget horizon ends. It's nothing unusual. In the last year of the horizon, 2025-26, I see $16.7 billion of new spending. I will rely heavily on Chris and Trevor to c

Finance committee  You'd have to define “reasonable”. The last year—

Finance committee  —of the forecast horizon has a deficit of $30 billion, which is higher than 1%. If your definition of reasonable is $30 billion and above, you're fine. If it's way below that, then that gives you an answer.

Finance committee  The risk of losing credibility is not immediate because we're in relatively good company in the league of countries that have deficits as far as the eye can see on the horizon, but it doesn't mean it will stay like that for most G7 countries. In the league of international compar

Finance committee  You're right. There are other factors. One of them is the reason I am here. It's fiscal policy or budgetary policy, so the more a government spends, the more likely it is to generate inflation, or at least inflation expectations. Last week's budget probably made the governor's jo

Finance committee  For small, I would say no. Small pressures would probably not have a big impact.

Finance committee  Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Julian. The report we released earlier today on corporate profits is designed to estimate how much extra revenue the government could raise if it imposed an additional tax on companies that earned higher profits than would have been expected ba