I'd like to address a question to the Prospectors and Developers Association and the Mining Association of B.C.
We're in British Columbia and we have the HST here, which has been a raging issue. I think it's fair to say that life got 7% more expensive for consumers and average people on hundreds of everyday items. As well, EI premiums are going up for workers across this province. Those people are seeing the taxes going up, yet the corporate sector is getting a general corporate tax cut.
Each of you proposes a further tax cut. In the case of the prospectors, you want a doubling of your tax credit and to have it made permanent. In the mining association, you would like a deep-drilling tax credit. I think you also argue, or the business community does, that the HST gives a form of relief from taxes--at least, that's how I understand the argument from the corporate sector.
So there are three major tax cuts coming, and I'd just like you to address that in the context of the $55-billion deficit, and whether you think it is the time now to be giving corporate tax cuts when consumers' taxes are going up and we have a massive federal deficit. I would also like you to put that in the context of the fact that I think Canada already has the lowest corporate tax rate among all the G-8 countries. If I'm wrong on that, I wouldn't mind being corrected.