Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to each of you for coming here today.
What the testimony has very clearly indicated is that this issue, this agenda, goes far beyond smart borders. I was interested in your commentary, Mr. Lennox, that even on the smart borders initiative, which is a tiny portion of the overall SBP agenda, the government has manifestly failed on moving forward even that component. That's an interesting point that I hope we can come back to.
I'd like to touch on the issue of prosperity, and I'd like to ask you something, Dr. Healy, as well as Mr. Pépin and Ms. Burrows. Government spokespeople continually say that somehow the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has succeeded enormously, NAFTA has succeeded enormously, and that somehow the SPP--more of the same medicine--is going to increase Canada's prosperity. However, Statistics Canada belies that myth.
Statistics Canada points out very clearly that since 1989, since the signing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, most Canadian families are actually earning less in real terms than they were back in 1989. There's no clearer manifestation of failure on economic and trade policy than the fact that the poorest Canadians have actually lost a month's income in real terms, that working-class Canadians and middle-class Canadians have each lost, on average, about two weeks of salary in real terms. Even upper middle-class Canadian have had absolutely no progress on the economic front. Those who have profited from the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and from NAFTA are the wealthiest of Canadians. They're making money hand over fist. Most Canadian families are actually earning less. What a failure on the bottom line of trade and economic policy.
So my question to all three of you is how we address this issue of prosperity, and really what this agenda is all about. If the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA have failed, on the prosperity front, to deliver prosperity to most Canadians, then what is this agenda really about in your opinion?
If you don't mind, you could perhaps comment after Ms. Healy.