Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thought we'd flogged this horse to death, but I think for the record I should just note the fact that in the last budget the income tax rate was raised, the personal exemption was reduced, and the number of people on the tax rolls went up. I'll just quote a well-known economist, Dale Orr, who in his own words wrote the following. These are the words of Dale Orr:
What the Finance Minister did not say in presenting Budget 2006 was, “Mr. Speaker, with this reduction in the tax free amount from current levels, I have today pushed about 200,000 of the lowest income Canadians back onto the tax rolls”.
That's Dale Orr speaking, a neutral economist.
I thought we'd solved that. But I have not much time and I would like to simply ask one question to Monsieur Vinet.
The key problem, as I see it, is that in the last budget, the government spent virtually all of the resources available to it, or $15 billion per year, which means that there will be little, if anything, left if it doesn't address the fiscal imbalance. The last budget made no provision whatsoever for universities, innovation and research.
So my one question to you is, if there is little money available, which I think is the case, of all the things that you would like to see, can you name one--preferably not too expensive--that in your view might be the highest priority for your university?