Part of the reason I enjoy being the chief economist of the Conference Board is that I think I have a platform to try to help people understand the modern world from a new perspective. That's why we do so much work on cities. Cities really are the forgotten partner in Confederation. We have starved them of resources. We put a report out yesterday--a report card on Canada's cities. You'll see something very soon on how to give tax capacity to cities. It's exactly the same concept as you're talking about, Mr. Chairman, around services, seeing them as part of the integrated whole within our national economy.
You're absolutely right, we have a kind of old “rocks and logs and maybe a little manufacturing” view of Canada, because that's what we all grew up with, that's what we understood. That's actually quite easy to understand. You can look at the GM line in Oshawa and see how cars are put together--the car pops out the other end.
Management consulting services are sophisticated. You actually have to train yourself for a long period of time to be very good at it. You have to know the literature and have a past history of experience. The same story would apply across most sophisticated service sectors.
You're absolutely right, they are an integral part of everything we do in our national economy. So yes, we need a new paradigm, understanding that all the pieces fit together and you can't really separate them out and assume this will stand on its own or that will stand on its own.