Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm the vice-president of economic affairs for the Mining Association of Canada. MAC members account for most of Canada's production of base and precious metals, diamonds, and oil from oil sands.
With respect to the recent federal budget, there are three areas where we see very good progress having been made. There are also a couple of areas where we would like to see further progress and where we will be focusing our efforts in the coming year. I would be pleased to expand on these areas during the question and answer session.
The first positive relates to the changes made to the business tax regime. We welcome the reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 19% by 2010, and we welcome the elimination of the corporate surtax by 2008. If there's room to accelerate this timetable in a future budget, we would certainly welcome this as well. We also obviously support the elimination of the federal capital tax.
A second positive relates to what is in effect a two-year extension of the super flow-through share initiative aimed at mineral exploration. I'm now in the process of compiling statistics for our industry's annual facts and figures report. It's interesting to note that junior mining companies have increased exploration spending from $284 million in 2003 to $790 million in 2005, partly in response to this flow-through tax treatment.
A third positive of the recent budget relates to the issue of a common securities regulator and rests in the commitment of the finance minister to engage with provinces and territories on this issue on a priority basis. While this issue mainly affects our small and medium-sized companies, it is an issue that MAC also supports on behalf of our larger companies. Canadian companies face added costs, paper work, and time commitments because of the balkanized securities regulation structure that we have in Canada.
Thank you, and I look forward to further discussion on these issues.