Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for all of your comments and suggestions. It's a real pleasure to be here in beautiful British Columbia.
My first question is for Mr. Wilson of the Surrey Board of Trade. I was encouraged by and interested in your comments about tax issues. As a member of the finance committee, I met recently with the chief economists of all the major Canadian banks, and I'm pleased to see that our government is on track to reduce our corporate tax to the lowest level in the OECD by 2012, which, according to the chief economist at the Toronto Dominion Bank and also Mr. McCallum's successor at the Royal Bank of Canada, will contribute greatly to Canada's economic growth, trade, and investment in the future.
I spent the first few years of my career as a tax lawyer. I've dealt with the issue of tax consolidation for many years, so I understand it. I can tell you that it makes for good work for lawyers and accountants, but I don't believe it's good for business. So I'm pleased that you've raised this, as I think it's something we need to definitely look at. Certainly, our major competitor, the United States, allows this kind of tax consolidation, and it's very beneficial to business organizations in the United States and it helps them grow their businesses.
I wonder if you could tell us what the estimated cost to the government in terms of lost revenue might be from making such a change. Also, could you give us a description of what you think might be the estimated economic benefit to Canada, such as a change in the income tax laws?