There's no question that Canada is a complex market, and there are many, many rules around our different businesses that add to the cost of doing business. The one thing I would mention to the committee to keep in mind is that Canada, before all of this happened, already had the highest taxes on alcohol in the world—the highest. So someone suggesting that this is just a little bit more, when you already have the highest taxes in the world...?
Our biggest emerging competitors lately are in fact bourbon distilleries and straight whisky distilleries in the United States. They're not facing this kind of issue. They're not facing carbon taxes. They have free access right across the 50 U.S. states with no impediments, and if there are impediments, they get them sorted out very quickly.
While we're all celebrating Canada's 150th birthday, I would just mention that two of our brands, Wiser's this year marks 160 years of continuous production and sale, and next year, 2018, Canadian Club will be celebrating 160 years. We have a long proud history of making whisky in this country. I'd also mention, by the way, that a Canadian whisky was picked last year as the best whisky in the world by the Whisky Bible.
We know that we make these fantastic products. The single largest challenge facing the spirits business in Canada, because we operate in a global industry, is attracting investment to the Canadian marketplace and the Canadian business.
Imagine yourself as an investor. Where are you going to put your money? Are you going to put it into a business that every year faces an unceasing tax increase that you can't do anything about and it's going to take more and more money, or are you going to look for another opportunity? I think what we're going to see is people voting with their feet, across all of our businesses, not just the spirits business.