Yes, 100%. I apologize. I misspoke. I meant additional testimony.
My apologies, Mr. Blaikie. Thank you for the correction.
I would like to have heard some additional testimony about interswitching. I know this cause is near and dear to the member's heart. I think some additional testimony would have been great. I believe some additional work could be done on that section as well, which would be interesting.
Also, I think more discussion on airlines and the changes with respect to the complaint system would be extremely valuable. I'm sure more individuals and more groups would have been happy to come before us to discuss the provisions of that act.
I'm always interested in hearing what the good folks at CBSA are doing. I would have enjoyed hearing from some stakeholders or having some Canadians come forward about the impact of our modernization initiative and how that's going to work. We all, obviously, saw the nightmare that was our transportation system over last Christmas and some of the breakdowns at Pearson airport. We saw significant wait times.
Airports are often the first places that people see when they come to a country. That might be all they see if they are just transiting in and our of a country. It's critical that we make a great first impression. That person may eventually consider joining our country and becoming a newcomer, or consider opening a business or making a capital investment. What type of impression are we making when they have to wait in line for hours and hours while they get their bags off, they transfer or they get a new flight because their flight has been cancelled?
To me, as I said, this is an area where we make a first impression. We don't know who might be coming through those doors. It might be a person who would revolutionize artificial intelligence. Maybe they'd choose to come to Canada. Maybe it's a person who goes on to be a champion for human rights. We should be rolling out the red carpet for people who want to come to visit our land as a tourist or come here as a newcomer. We should make sure that every Canadian and every person who comes to Canada has a great experience when they walk into Canadian airports. Unfortunately, we certainly have not always had that.
We then see, in part 4, a number of different provisions with respect to the National Research Council, the Patent Act and royal titles. We would have enjoyed some conversations about that area as well.
Part 4, division 32, is the Canada growth fund. I would like some more details from some of our experts on whether it will achieve its objectives. As I've said clearly on the record, I believe the federal government has to stop inhibiting growth and start putting in policies that instead promote growth. I would love to hear that going forward.
Part 4, division 36, is the clean fuel regulations fund. I want to hear more about the carbon tax part two, and specifically what it might cost. Of course, we heard from the Parliamentary Budget Officer that it will cost Canadians thousands of dollars. I would love to have a greater discussion of that going forward.
Then there's the EI appeal board. Perhaps that's some inside baseball chat, but I think having some expert testimony on that would be valuable as well. I would love to hear from some university professors who have studied that and who have some thoughts on it.
We need to continue to have great discussions and dialogue about this budget. I'm so disappointed that we couldn't come to a collaborative agreement where we would meet, talk and have really.... As I said, from the outset, the Conservatives really wanted two things. One was two hours of the Minister of Finance's time, which she steadfastly refused. She did grace us with her presence for an hour and 25 or 30 minutes; however, we still didn't get the two hours. The Conservatives then asked for 20 hours of testimony, and we didn't get that either. These were not outrageous requests.
We will continue to discuss and debate these amendments and these issues, and we'll continue to have extreme disappointment in the way that these Liberals have stewarded this economy. As we've heard, this is the worst economy since the Great Depression, as Philip Cross has said. We have a doubling of food bank usage. We have one in 20 folks in Mississauga using the food bank.
These are difficult economic times, and these are in the short term. The long-term economic measures may be even worse, with us being near the bottom on productivity and near the bottom on capital investment in the OECD. Our economic growth is forecast to be among the worst going forward in the OECD.
I appeal to you again, Chair. Maybe we could get unanimous consent to move back a couple of days to allow for 10 hours of testimony. That might be one meeting. As I said, I'm very thankful to the clerks. They do make miracles happen, and I'm hopeful that those miracles will happen again.
Mr. Chair, how long do we have resources for today?