Industry committee  Like Quebec, the federal government must absolutely encourage the other provinces to harmonize the sales taxes. That's absolutely essential to the productivity of the Canadian economy. The same is true of the list that we are going to submit.

Industry committee  It has not been done, and it needs to be done. I fully grant that. Remember that $33 billion over seven years is a very considerable sum of money. I'm certainly not going to say otherwise. Remember that in 1967 Canada spent 5% of its GDP on infrastructure spending.

Industry committee  Regulatory streamlining, I call it, and we can give you lots of examples.

Industry committee  In 2002, we were spending just over 2% of our GDP on infrastructure spending, so there's a big difference there. Obviously, some of that is related to the baby boom and such. The need is more critical in some of the older cities and the downtown areas and others. We all grant that.

Industry committee  Very quickly. I think it's very important when talking about financial regulation, as in regulation of any field, that we understand the consequences of regulating the minutiae and the picayune. I think it's vitally important that consumers have information about the choices they have with respect to banking products and insurance products and all the rest of it.

Industry committee  Ultimately insurance will represent the cost of protecting Canadians, and it will incorporate those prices.

Industry committee  First of all, we look ahead a lot more than five or ten years, I can tell you that much. That's why I wanted to talk to you today about this infrastructure challenge, because the degree to which Canada adapts more quickly to the forces of climate change—and we're talking principally about frequent severe weather—Canada will be more successful than other countries.

Industry committee  As they legitimately should; it's the money of their pensioners.

Industry committee  Well, the fact of the matter is that a lot of other countries are looking at this. This is what our infrastructure investment looks like over the past 30 years. It's been plummetting at a fast rate. I think we have to simply recognize the inevitable, which is that more money needs to be invested quickly in restoring our infrastructure.

Industry committee  I referenced that article in my original remarks, because I think we have no choice as a country but to look at additional public-private partnerships to rebuild the infrastructure we have. The percentage of our gross domestic product that has been invested in infrastructure has plummeted since the 1960s.

Industry committee  I just want to make a small correction or addition to that. Property and casualty insurers are not investors. Our role in the financial markets is different from that of banks and life insurance and health insurance companies, in the sense that we are not wealth managers; we are risk managers and risk poolers.

Industry committee  In the same way, Canada is almost unique, along with Australia and the United States, oddly enough--countries that normally are considered good places to do business, frankly--in having an insurance system that.... Here in Canada we have basically 10 different auto insurance products.

Industry committee  I would say roughly the same thing. Fortunately, the other sectors have been doing well for some years. That makes the losses more difficult to measure. However, they are still significant.

Industry committee  I would reiterate what Nancy has said. It's very important to have better established links between not just the universities but also the community colleges and the insurance sector, and to work harder at integrating new immigrants who are coming to Canada so that they feel insurance is a good career for them.

Industry committee  When I talked about the importance of having a regulatory system that keeps up to date with our competitors, I particularly referred to the need to make sure that any price regulation of any insurance market is as streamlined as possible. That's in the interests of consumers, so that the market can adjust more readily.