Thank you, Chair.
I appreciate getting back to the testimony from our esteemed witnesses. I appreciate what they've already provided to our committee today.
I would like to turn my questions to Mr. Smitherman and the Cannabis Council of Canada.
It's really incredible to think that an economic sector that was created out of nothing in just three years invested $45 billion into the Canadian economy and 150,000 broadly distributed jobs across Canada through the legalization of cannabis.
Given that cumulative taxes have reached the level you mentioned, it's not surprising that so few companies are at profitability today. I understand that the structure and formula of the excise tax has greatly contributed to the relative tax that's paid by producers and that this formula may have been based on an assumption that no longer holds true.
I was hoping you could explain this to the committee.