Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I want to say to my friends in the FTQ that René Roy, one of your past presidents, was a good friend of mine. I bargained with him and the communication workers years ago. I experienced first hand the Quebec solidarity fund, because I worked for Bell Canada when it got out of installation repair for a short time. You put together the package that developed Entourage, which saved about 1,500 to 1,800 jobs at Bell Canada.
One of the things we've heard a number of people at this committee talking about, especially in the very first days of the committee, is that it isn't the time for the federal government to withdraw from investment, because we have a hike in indebtedness among Canadians. We have some serious concerns in the business community, and legitimate concerns, if they're hanging on to their cash because they're afraid of a bank crunch.
I'm hearing today from several of you about investment in infrastructure and green technologies. We're sitting with a 7.3% unemployment rate, or about 11% if you include those who have quit trying. In the last panel we had yesterday, we had people from the education sector, that is, the community colleges. Today you mentioned people who are unemployed as well. There has to be a method of bridging....
One of my more direct questions would be whether you think it's reasonable to ask the federal government to postpone the date of balancing its books by a year or so, to invest right now, because we're seeing volatility in our markets. This has been going on for a long time, and the repercussions of it are going to be quite horrendous in the long term. I'd like your response to that if, you would, please.