There are a lot of things in the last two statements to respond to. First of all, I take issue with the wording Tony is using in this: “There is no tomorrow.” We've used some really big language to talk about the problem. This is a serious problem. There's no question that there are some serious issues out there, and we acknowledge that. We need to be realistic about the economy. We need to be realistic about how the situation in the U.S. is going to impact Canadians. We also need to be very careful. We're the leadership of the country, and we need to be very careful about how we articulate the issue. Consumer confidence, obviously, as anyone here in this room knows, is crucial to ensuring that the economy remains as strong as possible. We have to remember that right now the Canadian economy is, if not the strongest in the world, one of the strongest economies in the world.
Our employment situation in Canada is still very strong. Contrary to what Mr. Lessard might suggest, poverty is lower than it has been in the past across the country. People are employed across most of the country. The numbers are strong. Yes, there are some issues, and we're dealing with those issues. But we do have to be very careful how we articulate this.
We've taken some measures. I'm hoping that given some of the talk on the other side of the table that the opposition parties will be considering supporting the budget, and supporting the $1 billion community development trust we've put in place. I also want to point out that in our economic update in the fall we took some steps that put us in a very good position to be ahead of the curve on this. In terms of the tax cuts that we made for Canadians, all Canadians, including the workers you're talking about, whom you represent, are going to be paying less money to the government and having more money to spend on the things they need for their families.
We've taken some steps that are going to make Canadian businesses more competitive. So as we move forward, Canadian businesses will be more competitive than any of the other businesses in countries in the G-8. We'll have the most competitive business environment in the entire G-8 when our corporate tax cuts come fully into place within the next five years. We've set that action in motion ahead of the curve in the economic update that we came out with in the fall. In Canada, we're probably in the best situation in the world heading into what may be a little bit of a tough economic ride.
Tony talked about pushing this off to another committee, but that's not the truth at all. We're not talking about pushing it off to another committee. The other committee has already voted to study this issue. Surely there are other important issues at the same time as this that Parliament needs to be discussing without having five committees tied up studying exactly the same thing. It's ridiculous.
Every single word contained in this motion, from what I'm looking at, is also contained in the finance committee motion. There are a few extra things in the finance committee motion, but every single word contained in this is contained in the finance committee motion. Again, if we're going to do the job we're elected to do, we can't be studying the same motion in five separate committees.
I totally support Mr. Savage's suggestion that we table this. If as a committee we're not happy with what comes out of the finance committee, then we reserve the right to study this further if we want to.