I believe that you have understood our submission very well. We fully respect the one-person, one-vote principle, along with all other Canadians who believe that this country should be governed according to this same principle.
Our goal is to turn a profit in the short term, not in the long term. Companies seeking to make a profit in the long term are non-profit companies. Therefore, the same applies to the federal government.
What the federal government must grasp is that taxes should not be levied for the sheer pleasure of it. Funds are raised for a specific objective, that is to provide a service. Our association's members tell us that this is what is needed to keep a company running. This is where we draw a comparison with the federal government.
The federal government seems to be posting a surplus year after year, at the same time that provinces and municipalities are lacking money to fully carry out the obligations set out for them in the Canadian Constitution. This position is not a biased one; we simply want the economy to work well. In fact, this lies at the heart of your questions: what can we do to make sure that the Canadian economy performs well?
In our opinion, one of the things that can be done would be to reduce duplication and put the money where it belongs. Our hope is to have municipalities and provinces raise their funds directly from their constituents and be directly accountable only to their constituents. The federal government would only be accountable for the actions it takes, as set out in the Canadian Constitution.