Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and honourable members.
It's a pleasure to be here with you today.
The year 2016 has been tough for the economy so far. Zeroing in on exports, if you take the first seven months of this year compared to the first seven months of last year, exports have fallen 3%. We think that by the end of this year we'll get back to about zero growth in exports, but that would be our second consecutive year of zero growth in exports, so we're a little alarmed. Canada's GDP overall will grow about 1% this year. Hopefully, we'll get it up to 2%. That's why the Canadian Chamber of Commerce continues to bang on about competitiveness and how to improve Canadian competitiveness.
There are three main messages. You have a written submission, which is more detailed, but there are three key messages.
First, on infrastructure, we want to emphasize the trade-enabling infrastructure with the export corridors. That's the kind of stuff that will improve Canadian productivity and help us to generate wealth so that we can pay for all of those other things that are so important.
The second point is on innovation. We think it's absolutely critical to have Canadian competitiveness. The Canadian economy is not going to succeed by being low cost. We have to be more innovative and more successful, and that's why we're recommending an innovation box regime. If you produce a patent here in Canada, the revenues deriving from that product would be taxed at a much lower rate.
We would love to improve the venture capital environment in Canada with an investment tax credit similar to what they have in B.C. Maybe we could have more government investment in venture capital along the lines of the VCAP.
Finally, skills are absolutely the most important competitive advantage we have in Canada. We would appreciate any improvements to the express entry program to make it move more quickly and to get employers the skills they need. We welcome the findings of the HUMA report last week about easing temporary foreign workers, because those highly skilled people and those highly skilled jobs make Canadian business more competitive.
I'll stop there. Those are the three things we want on infrastructure, on innovation, and on skills.