Thank you.
Hello to all the witnesses. Thank you for being here.
I want to first correct the record. I think my colleague misspoke. It's never been part of our platform to advocate for a carbon tax. But I do have a number of people in my riding who come to me to say they want the government to take action on the issue of climate change. That is a pressing need that, sadly, is being ignored by the government.
I also want to raise the issue of the tax credit. Mr. Bobocel, just for your interest, the NDP has advocated for a tax credit for small and medium businesses. My riding is home to many, many small businesses, and we certainly have long advocated for a tax cut and also a tax credit for hiring new employees. It's something we've long advocated.
One of the dangers with an omnibus budget bill such as the government has introduced is that many things get bound together, and if you don't support some things, you end up having to vote against some things that you do support. I wanted to clarify that so you're clear. We do support small business, and this is a measure we've been advocating.
I want to ask a question to Mr. Carr. One of the areas where Canada is doing very badly is in the area of innovation. We're down near the bottom of the OECD in terms of innovation. It affects our productivity and competitiveness. In your response to our questions about the pre-budget process, you talked about innovation and the role of the humanities and social sciences in fostering innovation by taking a collaborative approach with other disciplines.
I'd like to ask you to elaborate on this a bit, because I think we're all searching for ideas to help make our economy more productive and more innovative.