Sure, I'll throw a few things out to respond to that. I think there are some important points there. I'll mention four things really quickly.
In terms of fiscal policy, tax competitiveness is hugely important. We talked about this issue earlier, in terms of skills and how you get more people into the workforce. We just did our pre-budget process with the finance committee in the last two or three weeks. This is the fourth budget period in which we have raised this issue of the hammering job we're doing on low-income Canadians--basically between $25,000 and $45,000 a year--and the clawbacks on their benefits. In effect, their marginal tax rate, as Glen said earlier, is through the roof.
So there's a potential, in terms of dealing with the skills agenda, where you're completely disincenting people from upgrading themselves and getting into the workforce, because they're just going to pay a heck of a price when it comes to tax time.
That's just one of the tax issues.
I agree with you 100% in terms of EI and the disincentives built in on labour mobility with respect to EI. We spent some time with the human resources committee on that in June. They're doing hearings on employability right now, which is an important issue in terms of getting more people into the workforce. I think our disincentives there that you raise are real and need to be addressed.
Focus the spending, I think, is another one of our themes here. You have to decide how you're going to be strategic in terms of program spending. We have two areas. One is infrastructure, and there are a lot of components of that. We've talked about transportation today, and that's one of the key ones. The other is post-secondary education, in terms of upgrading skill levels in the economy. So make those your two highest priorities.
I won't say any more about regulation and trade, because we've talked about those quite a bit today. I'll let the others have a crack at it.