Yes, fine.
I thought every question, certainly, was a very good one, and one has to be always nuanced. And that's why I, myself, was trying to say that while the world economy and the Canadian economy are doing fairly well, one has to worry about regions, one has to worry about sectors, one has to worry about communities. There's no question.
The economy is always changing, always--as we say in English--churning, particularly in the labour market.
I would like to make a couple of points, if I might. You're quite right, Monsieur Paquette, that energy and energy prices--and that is not only oil and gas but also minerals and metals, of which of course Quebec is a major producer--are particularly strong, and other export sectors are less so. But there has been, as you put it, an across-the-board increase in exports. And that includes, I might add, commercial services, which are doing extremely well. Of course, a lot of it is Montreal and Quebec based.
So I think one has to be, as you suggest, careful, but on balance, every year things will change. Some years it will be agriculture; some years it will be automobiles. Each sector, each year, is somewhat different.
With respect to your point about declining share, one can turn that around. Of course, we economists like to--I won't use the word play with numbers--work with numbers. I'll make the case that partly, because the rest of the world, for our markets, is growing, in fact the U.S. share, looked at that way, is declining. It's partly a reflection of the relative growth of demand on the part of the Americans as against the relative growth on the part of China, which has been referred to by my colleagues, and India. To some extent, it's other markets demanding an increasing amount from us that results in the share going to the United States looking as if it's declining.
But in fact, our exports overall to the United States from every region of Canada are doing extremely well. To some extent, it is through the United States, as well, that our exports, as well as our imports, are very strong.
The other point I'd make finally, if I might, Mr. Chairman, is the point Monsieur Paquette has made with respect to profits, particularly in Quebec. But this is true for many established firms in Canada. Because of the rise of the Canadian dollar, this will affect particularly those exporters who are finding their exports priced in U.S. dollars, which of course means that in Canadian dollars their profits are less.
But this is not necessarily a disaster in the long term. One has to take a fairly long-term view. This is not to be complacent. This is to say that one has to look at the entire picture before rushing to a judgment as to whether things are good or bad. So let's just say they're pretty good.