Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Finance for giving me the opportunity to voice the concerns of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. As time is very limited, I will restrict myself to five items.
The first item, which is not new, is the business community's desire to know that there is a trajectory for the government of Canada to return to balanced budgets and to see this enshrined in official documents. If there isn't, it opens the door to the risk of a steeper, faster trajectory in the future, leading to fiscal pressure and tax increases. From a business point of view, what's important is predictability. Achieving a balanced-budget trajectory should be seen as an assurance of that predictability, not as a goal of rapid spending cuts or tax increases.
The second item that is very important from the business community's point of view - and it's also in this budget - is Canada's response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, and to the very significant investments the U.S. is making in the green economy. Clearly, Canadian companies will have to be competitive. Our projects will have to move forward, and our investment strategies will have to be at least as robust as what we're seeing in the U.S. budget. We're very pleased to see that the Canadian response involves an investment-to-GDP ratio twice as high as that seen in the United States. For us, the Canadian response is very important. We believe that supporting the electric battery sector, which is very positive for the Montreal region, and supporting the green shift, from the point of view of urban SMEs, is very strategic.
As part of these major investments, we feel it's very important to also address issues related to the efficiency of government services. The past year has shown just how difficult it is for the government of Canada to deliver its often monopolistic services efficiently. Examples include the processing of temporary immigration applications, the issuing of passports and the situation at airports. We are asking that the budget bill include a strong commitment to disbursing funds to improve the efficiency of government services.
A fourth item is very important to us, and that's Canadian interprovincial trade. For years, there have been strategies to encourage Canadian companies to export their products. We saw the tension surrounding the renewal of the free trade agreement with the United States. Canada has signed free-trade agreements with other regions of the world, yet within Canada, interprovincial trade is sub-par. Quebec and Montreal companies, especially the smaller ones, are not working as hard to enter markets in the rest of the country. Conversely, I'd say that companies from the rest of the country are less active in Montreal and Quebec. This budget includes funds to strengthen interprovincial trade. We're asking that these funds be disbursed quickly so that organizations on the ground can help our companies find new markets in the rest of Canada.
Let me conclude by pointing out that the budget does not contain a single line of expenditure that seems to be increasing in all other OECD countries, namely money needed for military equipment and national defence. The world is changing rapidly right now, not least because of international tensions, commitments to support Ukraine, pressure on our equipment and the realization that we have limited capacity to protect our territory properly, particularly in the Arctic. This budget provides no response to these pressures. We believe that now is the time to study how Canada will increase resources allocated to defence issues, without necessarily leading to an increase in taxes to finance this spending.
Thank you.