Government Operations committee  I am sure there must be precedents, but, unfortunately, none comes to mind. I feel sure that there have been precedents with specific national defence contracts, for example, but they probably go back to before I was appointed. The people who have been in the office longer than m

Government Operations committee  A rise in interest rates is one of the risks we established in our economic and budgetary forecasts. We do not see interest rates rising in the short or medium term. That should not happen before the end of 2023 or 2024. Basically, any rise in interest rates will be modest. We a

Government Operations committee  A little earlier in the financial year, in the second half of 2020, we conducted an analysis of federal transfers which was quite cursory, considering the extent of the amounts in question. However, when we do our economic and budgetary forecasts, we consider what is known, name

Government Operations committee  That is a very good question, but federal-provincial dynamics are way beyond my mandate. I prefer not to poke my fingers into that machinery. However, your concern is perfectly valid.

Government Operations committee  A comprehensive report that includes all the measures that were announced and implemented, their expected cost and the expenditures to date would be a useful tool. I'm not aware of which countries do that. I know some do that. A comprehensive list would be helpful. The fall econ

Government Operations committee  We are not in a position to say how much the 2020-2021 year has cost to date in response to the pandemic, since we have no information in real time. We are basing ourselves on our forecasts, which we revise as soon as we get new data. That gives us a picture that is not perfect b

Government Operations committee  We have a good estimate, albeit an imperfect one, given that we are talking about unprecedented expenditures compared to those we usually deal with.

Government Operations committee  When we did our forecast at the end of September, we had labour market projections. The data that was published subsequently were even better than we had forecast. We feel that our forecasts at the end of September are still valid. Of course, you are mentioning very significant

Government Operations committee  Thank you. We have looked not only at the most affected sectors, but also at employment and output across various sectors, and we find that, indeed—and without any big surprise—some sectors are faring way worse than others, notably hospitality and food services. They're not doin

Government Operations committee  That's something we probably would be able to address in writing. We have some data—incomplete data—on recipients of the CERB by income group. I'm not certain if we have that by sector as well. I think a written answer would probably be the best way forward on that interesting qu

Government Operations committee  I know Statistics Canada has provided a wealth of information on sectors affected, on groups by age and so on. I'm sure they have more information than I have.

Government Operations committee  Personally, I see no fundamental reason why not. The government has been able to move very quickly on implementing programs that were designed from scratch. Doing a budget is something that the very capable Department of Finance is very able to do. There's no fundamental reason t

Government Operations committee  That absence of a fiscal anchor and a budget are a risk of credibility for the fiscal anchor. There is also a risk of not having a clear framework for making decisions. As one can easily imagine, the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister and ministers are probably subjected t

Government Operations committee  I am thinking to myself, I wouldn't want to be the Minister of Finance because, as I said before, her phone must be ringing off the hook. When you provide that perspective of $100 billion to be spent over the next three years but you don't circumscribe it or you don't put const

Government Operations committee  That's very close in its design or its nature to a subsidy. In the case of subsidies, my understanding is that the amounts of subsidies that corporations and businesses receive tend to be public, generally speaking. In the case of the wage subsidy, there could be competitiveness