Finance committee  Clearly, right now we're experiencing this with respect to the conflict overseas and the impact on oil prices and, therefore, prices at the pump. We talked about the issue of car expenses. That's a big one for a lot of people—transporting themselves around to work and to things like that.

Finance committee  Definitely, in my own practice, I've noticed that there is a growing number of younger Canadians who are running into financial difficulty and sometimes having to seek assistance and possibly insolvency services. I think a lot of that has to do with just what we touched on in our introductory remarks.

Finance committee  Sir, that is a question for an economist, which I am not. I wouldn't venture to go there.

Finance committee  It's a difficult thing to pin down. Obviously, right now what's happening for a lot of Canadians, although interest rates have fallen back over the past number of years—

Finance committee  I would say it's probably what it's been more traditionally. A reasonable period of time is 25 to 40 years.

Finance committee  Ideally, yes—

Finance committee  This is a personal opinion. I'm not an economist. Based on what I've seen, I would say probably 30 years.

Finance committee  I think we certainly did see this during the pandemic. When interest rates were quite low, there was an opportunity for people to get into a house and their monthly mortgage cost was affordable. That—

Finance committee  In my opinion, it does.

Finance committee  Sir, that's an answer I cannot give you. It's outside of my wheelhouse.

Finance committee  If the price of housing overall has gone up, then newbuilds will also be at a higher price, as long as the demand is there for them.

Finance committee  That's except if there's more supply. The price of housing should stabilize or come down as a result of that. If there's more opportunity for buyers, there'll be more competition in the market.

Finance committee  Thank you, André. We are seeing several consistent trends. First, many Canadian households remain under significant financial pressure due to increasing debt levels. With little savings and many living paycheque to paycheque, even a modest shock can quickly lead to a financial crisis.