Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning to everybody. Thank you for coming here today.
I don't mean to draw you into a political statement, but I'd like to remind everybody here that many of us have been saying that we have a mean-spirited government, a government that is unable to build consensus, that is ideologically driven, and that has a “fend for yourself” policy. So I'm intrigued by a statement that was made here earlier today, that the government seems to be contradicting itself, when it has created the office of small and medium enterprises yet is contradicting itself in its behaviour.
I'm interested in hearing from the small and medium businesses that are here today how you think a government can balance.... I came from the private sector, and I can tell you that for the private sector, unlike the federal government, the bottom line is the most important target, yet they're very careful about the small and medium businesses that are around them and make every effort they can to protect the industry around them, because they depend on them to survive and can't exclusively depend on large corporations.
So I'm curious to hear from many of you here today about how you think a government can do this? I agree with you that we should find a way to encourage and help small and medium businesses. How do you think we can do it?
Maybe we'll start with Mr. Ingle, since you are the one who made that comment.