We have a problem, too, of moving workers across the country. We have the Red Seal for the trades to make sure they're trained to the various levels to meet the needs across the country. Again, that's a place for education, government, and the unions to work together.
Mr. Conway, in your presentation—I'm sure you're probably just waiting for this one—I heard the little tinkle that the GST was a progressive tax. I have a little bit of a problem with that, because a consumption tax, in my view....
I should tell the tale that when Sheila Copps resigned over the GST, I was the guy who came second to her in the race. So you know my opinion on the GST from that.
From our view, a consumption tax affects the middle class and lower class disproportionately from the people who are well off. To my mind, income tax is the fairest way to address the needs of government, the needs of our society, to deliver.
We can debate the fairness of where you place that taxation, but over the last two years in this place, on this committee in pre-budget hearings, we've heard a lot of talk about the need for the government to take a lead on infrastructure. With your CEOs, you're going to be dealing very much with the municipalities, the federation of municipalities and that, with the $124 billion deficit they have.
I'm wondering what you think about at a macro level the federal government directly investing to lever some of the business dollars into infrastructure.