Thanks very much.
I appreciate all of your presentations. It's always difficult to figure out how to get at each one, but I want to try to do a little bit of an overview from the presentations we've heard so far today.
Nineteen out of 21 groups have made very convincing and compelling and, I think in most cases, pretty passionate pleas for the need to see a reinvestment of our very massive surpluses year after year, nine a row, into all the various things that people have identified: health, education, grassroots sports, culture, environmental initiatives, health, and so on. Yet—and I'm going to put this question very directly to you, Valerie—the chamber of commerce in the city is consistent in its position again this year, for the ninth year in a row, that despite the fact that we're in the ninth year of surpluses, the argument has been for faster debt reductions and deeper and faster tax cuts.
Since you yourself acknowledged that there have been massive cuts that were very punishing to us here in Atlantic Canada between 1993 and 1997, and never made up—never was there any rebalancing, which means that the gap is growing between Atlantic Canada and the rest of Canada in terms of federal infrastructure and investment—how do you reconcile the position you are taking, with the almost universal clamour from every segment of the community that you and I live in, for investment?