You made a choice. That's your call.
As I said, Montreal is the second largest metropolis in Canada. The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has existed for 194 years. It has more than 7,000 members. It works to improve business conditions and the business environment for businesses. Last week, at our forum, we welcomed the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and the Premier of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, to discuss the Canada-European Union free trade agreement. I will come back to that in a few moments.
The general context for the next budget is one of economic uncertainty that will have an impact on Canada. We are struggling with raw materials that still have very low prices. This affects the entire country, obviously western Canada more with the low price of oil, but the Quebec economy, too. There was a situation called Brexit. At this point, we don't know what will happen in Europe over the next year. Much of our foreign trade is with Europe. We also have these famous US elections where, suddenly, there is a Republican candidate who is even more protectionist than the Democratic candidate, who is herself protectionist. In addition, the Republican candidate said that he would review and perhaps even cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. In short, in this context, the Government of Canada's next budget must be cautious and very attentive to the evolution of the international situation. In the next budget and over the next year, there will need to be some flexibility to react.
I will tell you quickly about the five areas of action that are important for the Chamber of Commerce I represent in the next budget.
I didn't think we would speak about them today, and I think that we shouldn't speak about them for the next budget, but the first area is Bombardier.
In the last budget, we formally asked the Government of Canada to be present and to provide leadership to support Bombardier. Bombardier is currently the mainstay of the main, if not the only, aerospace cluster in the country. Earlier, you asked how to help SMEs in the next budget. We are helping SMEs when we maintain a strong ecosystem in a key area for Canada like aerospace. Therefore, we are ensuring that this gem will be able to continue its innovation agenda, to follow through with it and to ensure that all sub-contractors, all suppliers and all small businesses that supply the ecosystem that leads to the C Series will be able to develop. If we end up there in the next budget, it's because the federal government probably missed the opportunity to show that it was there when Canada was facing a major innovation challenge. If it isn't in the next budget and hasn't happened beforehand, it will be a failure for the Government of Canada.
The second area of action involves strategic infrastructure investments. After giving you some criticism, I will now give you some praise.
The Government of Canada made a good decision to start a major infrastructure program in the first year of its mandate. It was a good idea to proceed with analyzing large infrastructure projects. It's doing a good job. The next year must be a year of commitment and payment. If the next year is not a year in which projects get under way and authorizations are given, we will fall behind in the economic cycle. We are currently in a weak economic period, but we aren't in decline. However, as I said at the outset, if there is any economic uncertainty, we need to make sure that Canada's economy continues to grow.
I will now draw your attention to two major projects that seem strategic for the Chamber of Commerce.
The first project is the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's Réseau électrique métropolitain. It must be included in the projects that will be authorized from the infrastructure budget. It's a project that has unanimous support in the Montreal region. It's a project that fully supports the business community. The timelines are tight, and the Government of Canada, which is a major player in terms of funding, must maintain pressure for the timelines to be met.
The second project is Via Rail Canada's high-frequency train. For decades, people have been wondering why Canada doesn't have an HFT. We won't have an HFT for a long time yet, but we must take action on rail transport and on the connections in this respect. We must ensure that we appropriate these technologies, especially since this hybrid model will have a huge impact on our greenhouse gas emissions. It will also fit with the goals of COP 21.
The third area of action involves research and innovation, but especially productivity. We have an innovative society. We create innovations. However, we have a productivity challenge, particularly with our SMEs. Based on our analysis, our SMEs are slower than elsewhere to adopt innovations. They are somewhat slower than their US competitors to integrate innovations, particularly in the digital sector and in applications. One of the first challenges we should take on in the next and subsequent budgets is having an explicit growth strategy for the productivity of Canadian businesses, particularly SMEs, by focusing on the integration of new innovations.
Above all, our SMEs must be more alert to detecting innovations that will improve their productivity, to integrating them, and to financing the purchase of the equipment and training required. There may be federal programs, perhaps in harmony with the provinces, that could encourage SMEs to do this and recognize when they do it.
The fourth point aims to encourage the internationalization of businesses. As I said at the outset, the European free-trade agreement is strategic. We support it. Obviously, we supported NAFTA in Quebec, and we support the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Now, there needs to be consistency and the means to ensure that when we sign these agreements, there is an immediate impact on our SMEs and our businesses. This involves bringing our companies into these economic areas so that they develop their markets. Yet that is where the weaknesses lie. We have economic trade missions with big players, but little attention is given to SMEs and to the capacity of our SMEs to detect business opportunities abroad.
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has had a program for over 30 years called the World Trade Centre Montréal. It brings SMEs abroad.
However, the previous government cut our budget by 50% in 2006-09, and reduced it again in 2009-11. Later, when our budget was maintained, there was no indexing for that period, except for one year.
In short, the pan-Canadian challenge is to take advantage of free-trade agreements, to export and to bring our SMEs into these territories. The government should not be the only one to do it. There are organizations who are mandated to do this. It can be done in partnership, but appropriate budgets need to be set aside for this, and it must be part of an integrated strategy.
Finally, on the fifth point, our current dynamic is such that we have agreed that we would have deficits. We still need a clear plan for eventually returning to a balanced budget. The next budget is a credibility budget in this respect. The budget must include an explicit and detailed plan to return to a balanced budget. We will see if the situation changes and if, subsequently, there are reasons not to attain it. But right now we should have a very clear path of how to balance the country's budget, which will reduce concerns about future tax pressure on businesses and individuals.
Thank you.