At the last meeting held with the representatives of the CAPC, the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council, my Ontario government colleague was present. We had some very frank talks about the challenges facing that industry. We agreed to meet again as soon as possible, next spring. In the meantime, the Ontario government and the federal government will take note of the challenges facing the industry in an attempt to respond to them in the most appropriate manner.
The automotive industry people also told us about the tax system in Canada. In the last budget, we made 29 tax cuts, and the capital tax has been eliminated two years earlier than expected. These are positions that the automotive industry shares. Its representatives are very pleased, since that will help them preserve capital so that they can reinvest in equipment and become more productive.
That said, the challenges facing the automotive industry are the same for the other industrial sectors in Canada. If we leave money in the pockets of entrepreneurs, they can decide what is best for their businesses. I believe that's what the government has done, and that's its goal. We believe it's better to look at that in a more comprehensive way than to establish programs for each of the industries. However, we'll judge on a case-by-case basis because the door isn't closed. The automotive industry has plans for new automotive businesses in Canada. I'm working in cooperation with my Ontario colleague, and each case will be assessed on its merits.
According to the OECD, there's no correlation between subsidy levels and economic growth in the OECD countries. In some cases, it's good that governments assist certain industries, but since there's no relationship between economic growth and subsidies, each subsidy to an industry must be judged in a very specific manner and special attention must be paid to the impact that that could have on other industrial sectors.