Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll try not to poke anybody in the eye on the other side in my round, but I want to talk about one thing. The federal government is continually asked to invest in a variety of things like training, which is crucial to get people out of poverty. In my home town of Hamilton, one in five people live in poverty. We had value-added manufacturing in Hamilton, but we lost 50,000 jobs from 1988 to 1992, thanks to the free trade agreement.
As for taxes, our friends like to point to our wanting to raise taxes, but in the year 2000, the corporate tax rate was 38% and for the Americans it was 36%. Mr. Martin dropped it to 20%. Our concern is the drop from 20% to 15%, and the $16 billion it takes out of the coffers of the government to do the things that are needed in our country. That is where there's a serious problem.
We were just in the Yukon. Their population is low, but their infrastructure dates back to the 1950s. How do we address these things if we do not have some kind of strategy?
We've been calling all along, as these tax breaks occur each year, to stop at a certain level. The taxes wouldn't have been increased; they would have remained where they were. So there are mixed messages coming out.
What's the state of the infrastructure here in B.C., particularly northern B.C.?