Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to address the first question to Mr. Penney.
In the law of marketing we know that if a product is competing on price alone it becomes viewed simply as a commodity and not a valued good. Surely low tax regimes attract corporations, but global competitiveness takes in many other factors, such as company spending on R and D and corporate capacity for innovation. These are two of the main weaknesses in Canada's competitive economy.
Given the high load of personal debt and our low ranking on national savings as a percentage of GDP, and given that we rank 102 on government budget balance, according to the World Economic Forum, aren't low tax regimes a poor attractor of the most innovative companies that base localization primarily on tax advantage?
So why is it since we have a low tax regime for corporations compared to the United States that we fall lower in terms of innovation? And do you have any ideas about the other factors that could make Canada more competitive?