Good morning, all, and thank you very much for all your presentations. We are learning a lot about Atlantic Canada throughout this session today.
I believe that the economic downturn, the oil price crisis in Alberta, is affecting everybody on this side of the world. In looking into how we move forward, we've seen many panellists come forward and many people ask for money. You seem to bring a different atmosphere to the discussion today, which from a business perspective makes a lot of sense.
I'd like you to comment on this, especially Marco, Finn, and Patrick, and maybe Melissa. If you can contribute to the conversation in a way that.... In my opinion, the government should not always be coming up with money when there is a crisis. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. We believe that if we are to spend $30 billion, we need to be able to create 300,000 jobs. The math did work in the United States, and I think we should be on the same path.
Right now the government is taking some measures on a CPP increase or extension, on EI—which is a payroll tax—and on carbon taxes. I believe that now is the time for the government to step up and ease those taxation measures to give private businesses the opportunity to perform well in Canada and to make sure they find solutions to the job losses, the immigration issues, and all the economic problems we have.
What do you think the private sector can do in order to take this economy where it should be going?
We'll start with Marco.