British Columbia has been doing relatively well, like many parts of the world, from the commodity boom we experienced up until last year. There has been a setback; you'll see it around the world. But compared with other natural resource sectors, such as forestry, which was already having difficulties before the recession, and certainly compared with the declines we've seen in the gas and oil sector, our sector isn't doing quite as badly.
Now, we are seeing an impact, layoffs and other challenges, but we think we are probably in a better position because of demand in the Asian economies that's helping the British Columbia and Canadian economies come out of this faster. I think that's why it's important to pay attention to our sector, because we are probably one of the ones that can lead us out of this.
As Gavin said earlier, the $500 million we pay in taxes per year in this province could probably be doubled if we adopted some of these recommendations. And that goes to pay for everything else being asked for here today.