Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and hello to all of my colleagues.
Mr. Barton, it's good to have you here. This is my first meeting at the finance committee, so I'm happy to have you come for these important discussions.
Some of the points you've laid out have been extraordinarily interesting, particularly when you talk about lifelong learning and the skill-development centres that we've seen in the German model that have been very helpful in integrating people into the workforce. But to do all that, of course, the federal government needs resources.
My starting question is around the whole issue of the tax system—which the advisory committee has raised in the past—about shutting down loopholes through which certain companies avoid paying their fair share of tax and looking at having a level playing field in terms of digital services. In my area of the country, small businesses that are paying their fair share of tax and are applying the GST are competing against companies offshore that aren't paying anything, which is a major problem. It hurts the competitiveness, particularly of small Canadian businesses. At the same time, it allows money to flow out of the country, money that isn't being invested in things such as skill development, lifelong learning, and those important things you mentioned.
Are you concerned about the increasing amount of money that's going offshore because we lack a tax regime for digital services, and what is the impact on the Canadian economy in the long term if the government doesn't take the bull by the horns and put in place a tax framework for that?