Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses.
Mr. Howlett, in your submission you questioned the benefits of keeping taxes low. Specifically you were critical about the $43 billion in corporate tax relief. At the same time, you're a little less clear on the total $160 billion of tax relief for small businesses and individuals.
The reality is that we've made a decision, as a government, to keep corporate taxes low and to keep personal taxes low. We went into the worst recession that we've faced since the great recession, and I believe that because we've had lower tax rates we are a more attractive place to invest. At the end of the day we came out of the recession in better shape than our G-7 neighbours.
How does your argument work, that somehow the $43 billion in corporate tax relief didn't help us weather the recession?