Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here this morning, Ms. Reynolds.
I would like to speak to you about the GST, because the comment you've made is actually quite remarkable and flies in the face of virtually every economist's, every expert's opinion on the GST.
As a matter of fact, the majority of countries in the industrialized world, including Europe, are reducing corporate taxes, personal taxes, and are increasing their value-added taxes to 15%, 17%, and 18%. That is the reality of what's happening out there. Actually, when you say it's a regressive tax, I disagree with you. For lower-income Canadians there are rebates. There are GST rebates and tax credits to look after them.
So would you comment on that? Can all those experts and all those countries be wrong and you be right?