Finance committee  I think that was a very good practice in the sense that it provided parliamentarians with a very good idea of how quickly the pandemic was evolving and how the impacts on Canadians were being felt. It provided the committee members, as well as parliamentarians and Canadians, with

Finance committee  Of course. A five-year planning horizon is very welcome. It provides an idea also as to what the future would look like. The fall economic statement did not include all of the policy initiatives the government plans on implementing—by definition, a fall economic statement is a

Finance committee  That's a very important distinction. An anchor is a goal you have that's guiding the overall fiscal decisions: spending, taxing and so on. A guardrail, rather—at least as described by the government—is something that will determine when you stop some types of expenditures. In th

Finance committee  That's certainly among the best practices for governments to decide how they allocate spending. They have to have in mind an achievement, a target or a goal that they're pursuing, whether they quantify it publicly or not—that's probably up to them—but I would hope that they would

Finance committee  It's certain that it's a bit more difficult to determine whether an investment or an expenditure will have a long-term or short-term impact when we don't know the areas that will be targeted. I assume you're referring to the $70 billion to $100 billion mentioned in the fall econo

Finance committee  With respect to the wealth tax, as some of your colleagues pointed out, we have been quite busy. I could say I had a full head of hair before the pandemic and I lost it as a result of hard work, but that would not be true as you all know. We have, nonetheless, been quite busy. Fo

Finance committee  That's a broad question. Generally speaking, the best way to increase wealth across a country is to increase the productive capacity of an economy. That could be done in a few ways, but not that many ways. One way is to increase the number of people who participate in the labou

Finance committee  In general, yes. We have had some problems or concerns with some departments from which information seems to be more difficult to obtain, such as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and the regional development agencies. However, overall, things are quite good.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Julian. We actually do have regular meetings and discussions between parliamentary budget officers or the equivalent positions in the industrialized countries, and even in countries that are a little less so. To my knowledge, no country, at least in the G-7, has

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Ste-Marie. Yes, the debt limit is one thing. It allows the government to incur debts up to a maximum amount. The amount proposed is $1,800 billion. That does not mean that the government can keep spending until that amount is reached. It's not a credit limit, as o

Finance committee  No, you are right. When Parliament is dissolved, a special procedure called the Governor General's Special Warrants is used. The goal is to fund government operations only so that the operations can continue or emergency situations can be dealt with. It's a convention; the idea

Finance committee  I will leave you to decide whether it is acceptable or not. It certainly makes your work more difficult, because you are being asked to approve expenditures and initiatives, at a time when no one has the full picture of the impact on public finances and the economic situation. I

Finance committee  That would normally be the case, indeed, but that's assuming we revert to the normal legislative process. The government benefited from extraordinary powers in the previous session. Assuming we have the normal procedures for approving spending, yes, you are right, sir.

Finance committee  I would have to get back to you on that. Not being a lawyer myself, I'd have to look at the details of the legislation.

Finance committee  Having a debt ceiling, so to speak, under the Borrowing Authority Act is certainly a good idea in the sense that it increases transparency. The borrowing is not just a mere by-product of all of their government expenditure decisions. In that sense, it's a very good improvement in