Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all your worships for appearing before us today and bringing to us the very important perspective of community leaders who are facing massive challenges. Otherwise, it's all just statistics.
There's an evolution of what was called, when it happened in Holland some time ago, the “Dutch effect”, in that our economic growth in Canada is being driven by commodities and the upward pressure on commodity prices, which is driving up our currency and crowding out a lot of really important manufacturing jobs and other types of industry.
The Bank of Canada--we had them here earlier, and some of you were here to hear them--can only do one thing in terms of really the impact, and it's through interest rates, which is a blunt instrument affecting the whole country. The federal government does have some specific things we can do--in terms of regional development, in terms of tax policy, in terms of tourism policy. So I have a couple of questions in terms of things we can do.
First, which would have a greater impact on your communities, targeted business and personal income tax measures or else a national consumption tax reduction?
Second, on the visitor rebate program, should the government bring back the previous visitor rebate program in order to not add further challenges to the tourism industries in your area?
And third, we spend a lot of time in government trying to attract businesses to Canada. I'd appreciate your views on what we can do to actually help enterprises stay and grow in small-town Canada.
Thank you.