I will try to keep my comments and questions short so we can have a short enough answer that Mr. Cannan can share my time.
I'd first of all like to share with this committee and get on the record that I have the advantage of being able to look out the window. I see the blinds are closed beside me, but all the time we've been sitting here—for three-quarters of an hour—not one black helicopter has gone by, so I think that's positive. There's a lot of fear-mongering here, and we don't see too much of the black helicopter that we've been hearing so much about.
Thank you very much for your presentations today. I do appreciate Mr. Gill's most recent intervention on the positive things that are happening.
I think we tend to forget that we are a trading nation. Our largest trading partner is the United States. We have to have a good relationship with them. We have to talk about security, and we have to talk about prosperity, or we're not doing the job that we've been elected to do. So I'm glad to hear that we are actually talking about the benefits to trade, the increase in the per capita GDP.
One comment was about average manufacturing firms having increased in size, that Canadian manufacturing firms have increased in size by 33%. Those are the positive things that we need to be hearing about. We've heard from many witnesses who have talked about the advantages and about how Canada can encourage more trade to create more jobs, to create more wealth in this country, to provide the increase in average disposable income that we need, and also to be able to continue this increase in the levels of government expenditures on health and education by 129%, or $96 billion. That comes from commerce through taxation, and we need to keep promoting that.
Mr. Burger, there is one thing I would like you to clarify. We've had many people saying that the lower-income families are losing, and it wasn't in your written presentation, but you refute that. Can you provide perhaps, maybe not even now—