Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for coming today.
You know, as I was listening to your testimony, I went back to the motion. We really should distinguish between domestic market competition and international market competition, because the role of government will be very different. With international competition, we'd be looking at branding, the value of the dollar, our labour cost advantage, trade agreements and so on and so forth. I think today, particularly from the conversation here, we're mainly focusing on domestic market competition.
When it comes to the domestic market, we have to look at the government's role. We talked about the costs of labour. We talked about the administration costs, logistic costs for businesses, consumer behaviour changes during the pandemic and whatnot. More importantly, I think, we have to look at the domestic economy.
I'll let you answer this. Would you agree that in the last two or three years, Canada, as compared with the rest of the world, in terms of economic recovery and the health of its economy, has been enabling small and medium-sized businesses to grow and be sustained, with all the support from the government and the preparation of the playing field?
I'll start with Ms. Pohlmann.