Therefore, not unsurprisingly, the Investment Statement claims that given the significant financial support to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, what it has shown is that the net core Crown debt has increased to reflect this increase in spending. Caralee McLiesh, who is the secretary of Treasury, said as a result of the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in debt: increasing from 19 percent of GDP prior to the pandemic to peaking around 40 percent of GDP—that's an old measure of new Crown debt—or 20 percent under the new net debt measure.