These high interest rates have the potential to discourage some of the investments that will be needed to keep the Canadian economy productive and competitive in the future. In order to reduce these interest rates, Canadian governments must stay the course of fiscal consolidation, and bring down the levels of public debt in relation to national income.
The largest part of economic activity in our country revolves around the spending by Canadian households on consumer goods of all kinds and on housing. This has been the area most affected by the stresses and uncertainty of the restructuring. As I said before, a good deal of the restructuring in the private sector has already occurred.