Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister Flaherty, I would describe this as a very exciting day for Canadians. I think today's economic update and Advantage Canada is something people will be very excited about, because it gives a road map, a fairly clear road map, for the road ahead, and it's very promising, very positive.
One of the things I think Canadians look at a lot when we're talking about paying down the debt is, “What's in it for us? How is this going to help me? How is it going to help our community? How is it going to help Canada?” And one of the things you've unveiled is the tax-back guarantee, which I think is very important. We know in our personal lives that if we're responsible financially, there is a benefit from it, but very often responsible government doesn't necessarily mean there's a benefit people can tangibly see in their own finances.
Indeed, they didn't necessarily understand that the reckless increase in spending—as you indicated, some 14.4% for 2004-05 alone, which is about seven times inflation—was bad, because they weren't getting a reduction in their taxes. But with this tax-back guarantee, they're actually going to see that by being responsible, there are savings.
Mr. McCallum said $1.4 billion isn't a lot of money. Well, it starts out at $800 million annually and works its way up to $1.4 billion. We're talking about more than $5 billion in savings. I think Canadians are going to be pretty excited about saving that kind of income tax burden.