Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to go back to the update to investors that Fortis made. ITC Holdings is another name here. When they bailed out of the Lake Erie connector project, they said, “Macroeconomic conditions relating to rising inflation, interest rates and foreign exchange impacted the viability of the project”. When I talked to Mr. Pawlowski, he said that the situation in terms of our interest rates, inflation and the macroeconomic conditions has not improved since July 2022. What is happening here is that a private sector investor has bailed out of a project because it can't make it work anymore. It financially doesn't work due to the economic conditions.
We saw last week that Scotiabank said that Bank of Canada rate cuts could be delayed by high government spending. That was their CEO. Then we saw yesterday that the Bank of Canada did not reduce its prime lending rate, which means that Canadians did not get a break on their mortgages, lines of credit or loans, and neither did small businesses. These high economic pressures are continuing to fall on Canadian families, Canadian businesses and Canadian small businesses.
Ms. Raitt, your CEO at CIBC said last week that the Canadian government risks reigniting inflation with spending measures aimed at fixing an acute housing crisis. As Mr. Muys mentioned, you were a minister in a government that balanced the budget, kept inflation under control and made record investments in infrastructure. Drawing both from your record in cabinet with a government that prioritized financial responsibility and from your new role with CIBC, how important are the broad financial policies that lead to a macroeconomic environment that encourages investment rather than having investors heading for the exits?