Thank you, and thank you to the witnesses. I thought there were particularly perceptive comments this morning, which I enjoyed.
I would like to start with one comment of my own, more as an economist than as a politician; that is, your proposal for grants to universities to be per student rather than per capita makes total sense, not just from the point of view of fairness to Nova Scotia, but the efficient functioning of Canada as a single country and a single economic union. We want people from across the country to go to university where they think it's best for them within the country, and the per student grants would reduce the impediment we now have.
I want to conduct what one might call a little poll, which I've also done in other parts of the country. One of our jobs is to make recommendations about the overall priorities and funding for the budget. One of the government's ideas is to have a second point of the GST cut, which would be extremely expensive, like $6 billion a year, and crowd out much else that we might want to do in this upcoming budget. My question to you, either representing your organization or in your private capacity, is whether you think it would be a good idea to proceed with the second phase of the GST cut, or to use the $6 billion saved for other priorities. If you could just say, “No, don't proceed with the GST cut”, “Yes, do”, or “No comment”....
Maybe we could start with Mr. Johnson.