Yes, sir. I find the reference of 50 years quite telling, because 50 years ago more or less we had a federal minister who proposed more or less similar changes to the tax code, an MP from Cape Breton, Mr. MacEachen, and those were reversed.
The compounding effect of higher taxes is a problem for a receding demographic, and the demographics essentially have three negative points. One, in the last couple of years in all but one province in the region we have more people dying than are being born, so the natural replenishing factor is receding.
Two, we also have more and more young people leaving the region looking for opportunity elsewhere, and this by and large is policy driven. For example, this is a region that is wealthy in resources, yet we have all kinds of policies and regulations against the exploration and the commercialization of many resources.
Three, more to your point about age and the taxing of the system, more and more Atlantic Canadians are coming back to retire here after spending their better years paying taxes elsewhere. It's not that we don't want them back. It's that when they come back, they come at an age where they are taxing the health system more.
When we look at the fiscal panorama of the region, if we look at health and education alone, within variations they represent between 50% and 60% of the spending of most of the provinces. This is clearly unsustainable.