Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, guests, for being here today. It may be cold outside, but you certainly have received us very warmly here, and I appreciate those of you who've travelled from Calgary. I'm sure it wasn't easy to do that this morning. We are interested in the comments you've made, and your perspectives are very refreshing. Some of them are diverse, but ultimately they're all helpful.
I want to focus on one area that would give us a trade-off. We've heard different and varying remarks from manufacturers, from business representatives, from chambers of commerce, from labour groups right across the country, and depending on the region, the exposure to international markets affects the relative health of commercial entities across Canada.
In terms of catching up on the productivity gap that was mentioned, if the government were to make a decision on a two-year regime on depreciation, would that stave off the onslaught of cheap goods coming in from countries like China, which have enormous subsidies? Is this really a panacea in and of itself? Or are we going to have to be a little quicker on our innovation? Or as they said in the nineties, we'll be quick or dead.
Mr. McDougall, if you wish.