I do think the fusion of protectionist sentiment with a desperate need to find new sources of revenue is a significant risk to Canada. Again, the only way to stop this is for Americans themselves to be on the watch for their own best interests, and if they see something that's will be very negative to Canada, and therefore destructive of their biggest customer, they might and could speak in their own defence and therefore help our situation as well.
I'm going to move on. I have a section called “everything else”, which would include all the other possible irritants and exacerbants that may emerge between us.
The most important threat we face from the United States is probably not any of these overt actions, but just as a result of a general gesture by the United States administration to improve the competitiveness of U.S. business. Regardless of whether we like what they're doing—cutting taxes, cutting regulation, deferring environmental spending, repatriating capital from other countries with a tax amnesty—and whether we think any of those things are good or not, they will have a very significant impact on the competitiveness of American business, and neighbours like us are going to have to respond to them. I think that is the biggest challenge we face—not any of the specific actions but the general improvement in the opportunities to invest in the United States and diminution of the attractiveness of investing in Canada.
The Canadian government so far has done a masterful job of engaging with the United States at the political level; we've seen everybody. From the moment someone is appointed and then is approved by Congress, a Canadian is waiting to take them for coffee. That's been very impressive. American diplomats are reflecting that to us, saying that they've not seen a campaign as effective as this, or at least as active as this.
But the next exercise is to get out of Washington and into the heartland where Americans are talking to their own legislators about their own interests and to make sure that Canada is seen as a positive for that, and that dangers to our relationship be avoided.
That, I think, would be a good place for me to stop, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to questions.