Thank you.
Mr. Hodgson, you mentioned that you're working on some tax reform proposals now. You also mentioned that you believe it's more rational economically, from a competitiveness perspective, to build a tax base on the consumption side as opposed to taxing either personal or business revenue or earnings.
I'd appreciate more advice from you in terms of the kind of tax reform we ought to be undergoing in Canada. We haven't had real tax reform since 1971, with the Carter commission. Except for the advent of the GST, there hasn't really been significant tax reform.
Other countries—Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavian countries, Sweden, and the Netherlands—have undergone massive tax reform to make their countries more attractive to capital and talent, both of which are more mobile today than they've ever been globally.
So I'd appreciate your further insight on the kind of tax reform we should be looking at, with one other consideration, which is how we should be greening our tax system. There's a global consensus among the business community that whether or not you agree with the science of climate change, whether or not you support Kyoto and its framework, there's going to be a price put on carbon by individual countries through carbon taxes and potentially imposed on other countries through carbon tariffs on imports.
So it's going to be broadly based, it's going to be felt, and it's broadly felt that if you're not environmentally ahead of the curve, you're going to be left behind economically once there is a price put on carbon.
I want your input on tax reform, but also on whether or not we ought to be greening our tax system by moving pre-emptively on putting a price on carbon.