I think a very important part of the global economy today is competing for investments in the product mandates we manufacture or that other businesses take on here in Canada. This is no longer an economy where we're looking at domestic production and capital investment that does not move anywhere; this is an economy where we have to compete and where manufacturers and other businesses are all a part of global supply chains. That means companies are looking at the best place—as any investor would—in the world for return on their investment.
We often look south to the United States for a comparison, but the reality is that companies are making investment decisions to locate in Singapore or Sweden or South America or Asia, where tax rates are not only much lower but where all sorts of other incentives are also provided for investments.
There are two issues: keeping the nominal tax rate competitive, and keeping the effective tax rate competitive—because there are all sorts of other taxes that are paid by business as well. The nominal tax rate has to be in at least a competitive range, because on the part of global companies—and these companies are not necessarily foreign companies, but Canadian companies too, looking to make a major expansion—in many cases the first reference they look at is simply the nominal tax rate. That's why, given that countries around the world are all focused on attracting investment in productive assets, many companies are looking at future tax rate reductions.
This is why I think we also have to be competitive, and not just with the U.S. in particular, because the attraction of the U.S. market is going to be a major attraction for investment itself. I would make the argument we have to present something much more competitive to draw that investment and retain that investment capital.