Thank you very much. I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Brison.
I appreciate you all coming here today and giving your perspective on the pre-budget submissions. I know how much work goes into preparing them. By way of disclosure, I sat for 11 years on the board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and was the chair of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 2003-04. So I've been in your position, where you had to come and try to convince government to do certain things.
My first question goes to Mr. Beatty of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In your discourse this morning you talk about returning to balanced budgets. I remember during the 11 years that I sat on the Canadian Chamber of Commerce how diligent we were in working to ensure that government did just that.
We have a very serious deficit right now. I guess this is the biggest spending and biggest borrowing government in the history of Canada, and we have concerns about its fiscal strength and the economic strength of our country.
I note in your discourse that you talk about continuing along the lines of decreasing corporate taxes. I can remember when I was on the board in 2000 that the effective tax rate was about 28%. It is now down to 18%, and you're asking this government to borrow money--borrow money--to drive up our deficit and our debt to ensure that tax rates continue. I find it a little ironic that you would ask this government to continue in the way of debt and deficit, borrowing, to fund these lower taxes.
I note on your website today that you have this: “Do you believe that the recent Fiscal Update is pointing Canada in the right direction?” Over half have voted no, they don't think it's going in the right direction.
So you're asking this government to continue on this course of lowering corporate taxes. Could you comment on why at this particular time your board and your 175,000 businesses are following in that direction when in fact you've been very strong in advocating for, and I'll quote your own words, “vigilance and leadership” in making sure we have a strong economy?