Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It has been a long time since I graduated. I am very pleased to be here, malgré tout.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your House of Commons.
I would like to make my first question to the spokesperson of Manufacturiers et exportateurs du Canada, M. Martin Lavoie.
Mr. Lavoie, thank you very much for your testimony and your expertise. In fact, I want to greet and thank all of you for your testimony and expertise.
From our perspective, as manufacturers and exporters, you are the creators of wealth in Canada. When you produce goods or services and sell them abroad, foreign money is paid to our country and fuels our economy, and truly creates wealth.
I went to Vancouver with another parliamentary committee, the Special Committee on Electoral Reform. I was in a hotel where I had an extraordinary view of the bay. I counted no less than 27 container ships, all headed for Asia.
When we sell our products, they are manufactured in Canada and leave the country to be sold abroad, and this brings back yens, euros, American dollars and pounds sterling to our country and creates wealth. That is what your association does. As a Canadian, I thank you for that.
I would like to know what you think the impact of maintaining the tax on production, the 11% tax enterprises have to pay, will be? It is being kept at 11%, although others had committed to lowering it to 9%.