As a change of tack, I'm not going to the energy sector this time, but I would say, from our perspective as the chamber of commerce, what we would like to see a focus on is a return to balanced budgets. That is probably the priority for us. We would like to see the government move in that direction.
I'm not sure there is an appetite for this whatsoever, but I'll put on the table that there should be a review of the suite of taxes that we have. Are we taxing in the right way? I look at some of the OECD countries, and in a place such as Sweden, their VAT is 25%, but then their income tax rates are quite low, very low. In Canada, it's 5%, and then our other rates are higher. I won't even tell. You all know what the rates actually are, but there may be an opportunity to ask whether we are taxing things the right way.
Not that this has anything to do with this committee or the finance department at all, but as a country, we continue to levy property tax. It's the most archaic tax we could possibly have, yet that's what we fund our municipalities and education with. Isn't it time that we really stopped and said this is something that may have worked 150 years ago but doesn't really work today because it's a capital tax? It's arguably the worst form of taxation that you could have.
Anyway, I've gone on and on. I'll stop there. Sorry, Mr. Chair.