Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for your presentations.
I'd like to pick up on the ability to pay.
Mr. Thomas, you mentioned the importance of that. I, too, think it's important to recognize the fiscal capacity. But isn't the capacity to pay somewhat of a subjective argument? The ability to pay threshold varies depending on who you're talking to. A number of economists consider Canada to be in good shape when it comes to its ratio of debt to GDP and deficit control, as compared with the rest of the industrialized world, especially Europe and the United States.
In some cases, the government is creating obstacles for itself. When it came to power in 2006, it adopted certain measures. It reduced the GST from 7% to 5% and steadily cut corporate taxes. The resulting loss of revenue was estimated at somewhere between $12 billion and $15 billion, before the recession had even hit. And, clearly, the recession exacerbated the impact of those measures.
Future measures by the government could again turn out to be self-imposed obstacles. It could then use the ability to pay argument to force the public sector to accept conditions because of things we are going through now.
Would you agree that the ability to pay is a subjective issue, one that really depends on the individual perception each and every one of us has?