Finance committee  We looked at the three main regimes—the one in place until April 1, 2006, the regime between 2006 and the end of March of this year, and the regime in place since April 1, 2019. You'll have to forgive me, as I've forgotten the names of each of the regimes. As I've said on a few occasions, these are very complex regimes.

Finance committee  With respect to household indebtedness, it's clear that one of the main factors is the relatively low level of interest rates, which of course encourages people to take on more debt. Another big factor contributing to high levels of debt is the relatively high price of housing. When household formation happens, people want to live somewhere, obviously, and they have a choice either to rent or to own.

Finance committee  When you look only at the federal debt-to-GDP ratio, it's quite low compared to international partners. However, if you want to compare things that are comparable, for example, the U.K. is a unitary state, so if you look only at the federal level, we obviously look advantaged. A better gauge of debt levels to GDP take into consideration the federal, provincial and territorial debt levels.

Finance committee  Yes. After the decline in business investments throughout 2017 to 2019, we expect that business investments will rebound, in good part because of the increase in oil prices in Canada and also abroad, but also because of the tax changes introduced in the fall economic statement. Both of these will be important contributing factors to increasing business investments.

Finance committee  It's an issue we have not directly looked at as part of our economic and fiscal outlook, but Chris and Jason may want to expand a bit on it.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and ladies and gentlemen members of the committee. Thank you for your invitation to appear before you to discuss our financial and economic perspectives from April 2019, which were published earlier today. As you know, the Parliamentary Budget Officer provides parliamentarians with independent, non-partisan economic and financial analysis.

Transport committee  That would be of great interest to many people, but that is something I think would be premature try to estimate while the projects are still being completed. Indeed, some of them are just starting to be completed. Given the long time horizon of several of the infrastructure programs, it would be very difficult to come up with a precise estimate of that.

Transport committee  It is not just a good idea, it is key. There should be a cost-benefit analysis for every project. When we ask people about their objectives and performance measurement strategies, we do not get many answers. A great deal of weight is given to the financing criteria and funds disbursement, but there seem to be significant gaps when it comes to measuring the objectives to be attained.

Transport committee  We have a good relationship with the people at Infrastructure Canada. I believe that the department does everything it can to help us. Some other departments are responsible for smaller projects, in keeping with their total budget, and for which there may be less interest. However, I believe that the people at Infrastructure Canada do a good job of providing the information they have available.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  That may be better answered by Infrastructure Canada, as you'd probably get a more accurate answer from them because of the multiplicity of programs, each with its own terms and conditions. I know, generally speaking, how it works, but I'm sure if I give an answer, somebody will be back to say it's inaccurate because this or that program has different terms and conditions.

Transport committee  Thank you.

Transport committee  Somebody said it's all over the place, and when you look at the infrastructure programs, there are so many that one can easily get the impression that they're all over the place. There's a program for virtually everything. Looking at the database of projects being funded, there is a radio communication system for public transit or a bus system.

Transport committee  I'm sure there's an opportunity to propose such a program, but the decision as to whether this program, or the program you suggested, would be in the best interest, or align with the government's priorities, is up to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, or the Minister of Infrastructure.

Transport committee  I think there are probably two things the government wants to accomplish. It's saying that it wants to stimulate the economy and have long-term growth, but at the same time it also wants to help municipalities and provinces fund infrastructure programs. I'm not sure it's doing both very well, to be honest.