Thank you.
That was an excellent presentation.
I think you've got it right in terms of where the problems are and where the challenges are, especially in relation to capital and investments and some of the things we need to do. I know you've essentially said there's not much we'll be able to do on the monetary side in terms of the dollar, or even interest rates, for that matter--or even, as you've indicated, on energy costs. Yet, as you've indicated, there are a few things we might be able to do to stop this tidal wave that may in fact be a promise for us, or even an additional curse. Let me talk about a couple of things.
I believe in these things in terms of deregulation, innovation, immigration, and making sure we attract the investment. I think all of that side you have done. I get a little concerned when I hear some notion from the NDP that we ought to nationalize, have nationalization, or that there's something wrong with profits, as if profits aren't in fact return for investments, and so on. But let me just ask you, in terms of deregulation, and we've talked about it and everything else, or to mitigate against the dollar, or the fact that we need 250,000 positions today or in the next ten years we may not have the human resources--labour mobility, absolutely--what can we do as a federal government? The problem is there are an awful lot of provincial regulations that preclude us from doing all of these darn things that are important.
Are we to move quickly on deregulation? We don't have a lot of time to do this because this tsunami is heading this way. Second, if depreciation is the short-term answer to a rising dollar if we are to remain competitive and not shed any more dollars, what do we need to do on the human resources side to make sure those jobs are being filled by the people who are still unemployed or whom we need to bring into this country?