Thank you, Mr. Chair, I appreciate that.
Mr. Myers, I appreciated your presentation. I just have a couple of things I want to talk to you about.
In Advantage Canada, I've gone around and made a lot of presentations, and one of the things I've talked about is the need for the government to create the proper environment for business to flourish. I really think that's government's role. You've mentioned specific targeted initiatives, targeted investments that governments should make. I think we're making those. I think they're the right thing to do as well, in particular if you want to encourage investment into new machinery and technology and keep Canada on the cutting edge so we can compete.
Advantage Canada speaks of five different measures. So with the knowledge advantage, certainly manufacturing and industry has to appreciate the amount of money the government is investing into post-secondary and trades: a 40% increase in last year's budget, a further inflationary increase this year, plus new grants and loans to help students and help train people. With the infrastructure advantage, obviously we've brought forward Building Canada, a $33 billion fund; we're talking about things like the new Windsor-Detroit crossing, which is critically important for manufacturing. With the tax advantage, we've already talked about moving to the lowest corporate tax rates in the G7, a 15% total tax; we've brought forward accelerated CCA rates for manufacturing, and we've extended that. With the entrepreneurial advantage, we're looking at trying to reduce the burden on business. Certainly as a person who was in small business, employing about 20 people, I know what it's like to meet a payroll and I know what it's like to have to put up with bureaucratic red tape. And of course we're working to pay off debt.
Specifically I wanted to speak to you about a couple of issues. First of all, I assume you're aware that yesterday--and I would argue that this plan is making real progress--we had a very significant announcement from ALCOA of a $1.2 billion funding for operations in Baie Comeau, Quebec. It will create 7,000 new jobs. Obviously we know that will have an exponential effect on spinoff jobs in Quebec. I'm very excited about that.
It seems to me that the environmental changes we're making are working in attracting investment. Do you agree with that?