Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here.
I tried to answer the questions that were posed in the paper, which I condensed a little bit.
Question number one asked about what federal measures would help Canadians maximize their contributions to the country's economic growth. First and foremost would be increased funding for education and skills training to meet the needs of the country, given the demographic shift that's occurring throughout the country due to the retirement of the boomers.
I also chair the Regina Trade and Skills Centre—I'll talk about that a little bit later—which I think is a model for the country. An active and vibrant economy where both career and business opportunities are around is very important.
On competitive personal taxation, I did look at taxation rates across the OECD, and we are relatively competitive, but there are probably some areas that we could look at. The ship may have already sailed, but we should allow Canadians their choice at to whether to direct their increased retirements contributions to either the CPP or to a locked-in RRSP.
Question number two asks what federal actions could assist Canadian businesses to meet their expansion, innovation, and prosperity goals. I think you've already heard this today; it's a really hot topic in this province. The answer would be to delay the national carbon tax to allow for future consultation with all stakeholders to determine if we're not better off to look at focusing our research and development to meet the challenges we have and to develop global solutions to help us reduce GHGs, as opposed to the 1.5% to 2% global emissions targets. A recognition that natural resources are a vital part of our national economy is very important to our members. A streamlined, predictable, and accessible regulatory environment is important. I'm not saying that there hasn't been work done on that, but more needs to happen, I would say.
Access to tidewater is absolutely vital. I listened in a little bit to the last presentation, and I would say that it is really important to have enough pipelines. Energy east is absolutely vital to us, and I'll go off my notes a little bit here to say that I considered what kind of media stunt we could pull in response to what happened in Montreal, to the point where I almost thought that if I got arrested, perhaps we would get the same kind of media exposure. I mentioned that to the chair of my board, who is a lawyer, and he said, “I recommend you don't do that”. It's not something we are doing, but I want to assure you that Energy east, and the pipelines, and getting our products to tidewater is absolutely vital to our economy here in Saskatchewan. I just want to make that point. If there is any point I can make here today, that's the point I really want to make. That is absolutely vital to us.
A return to balanced budgets, or at least a signal when we might return to balanced budgets, is important for us. The continued pursuit of international trade agreements, given that we're the most export-dependent province in the country, is really important.
On competitive taxation, again, EI should be a pure unemployment insurance program. I've heard that from our members.
In response to question number three, we favour access to education with a strong emphasis on educational alignment with industry demand. Here's where I'll just go off a little bit on the Regina Trades and Skills Centre. At our centre we do not offer any programs unless industry has come to us and said “We need to hire people that have these specific skills”. We train for those specific skills, and our success rates are extremely high, depending on what the course might be. Even during these challenging economic times, we've have some good success rates, and that's something we think is a model for the country.
With that, I'll just leave it there.