In terms of the budget measures, clearly, trucking being a drive-demand industry, anything that is going to enhance economic output will ultimately benefit trucking. We haul other people's goods. That said, however, specifically the accelerated capital cost allowance for manufacturing has done nothing directly to address the fact that in our industry it takes twice as long to write off a truck in Canada as it does in the United States, for example.
There have been a lot of things to assist domestic manufacturing, but again, if you look at the trucking industry, in Ontario we have lost the two remaining heavy-truck plants that existed in the country. Perhaps that's because, at least in part.... Obviously it's a complex issue, with the economy being the overriding factor, but it seems to us that those things that we need in order to try to accelerate purchase and investment in our industry we unfortunately don't see come to fruition.
In terms of the corporate income tax rates, and I think this is an important point to raise, clearly, for Canada to compete for foreign direct investment and for businesses to set up here and to operate, we need to have competitive corporate income tax rates. Again, the trucking industry would benefit from new production staying or coming into Canada. However, as a low-margin business where profits are low, really those corporate income tax rates have not had an appreciable beneficial impact directly on the trucking industry. You have to make a profit before those things really are of much help to you. In our industry, we tend not to make a terrific profit, even in good years.
That's why it's important to us that those other things that eat into our bottom line, such as excise taxes, are addressed. Those would have a real impact on trucking. Whereas, again, the corporate income tax rates are positive and you have to have them, they don't have quite the same impact on our business.
