Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here.
It's unfortunate that it's a short timeline that we have with you. I come from Oshawa where we're big in cars and manufacturing. We're just finishing up a study on steel and aluminum tariffs but I think that's going to be an ongoing thing.
Mr. Mintz, I think you brought up an issue about being competitive. We've had good Canadian companies that are right at the precipice here because they do business not only in Canada but other countries as well. Some of their comments are that the best support the government can give to them is to be competitive. We have an American trading partner. Most of our trade goes down there. They're very aggressive with the taxes.
Mr. Azzopardi brought up the accelerated depreciation and things along these lines. We have uncertain regulations in Canada. The big one on the floor right now is Bill C-69. We have this new carbon tax that is coming in, and we have a lot of different things that are unique to Canada.
If Canadian SMEs aren't competitive internationally, for these support programs that the government taxes businesses for and then gives it back through programs, how relevant are they? What do you need to see in Wednesday's economic update to address competitiveness and education for these different programs to say that it will actually help SMEs on the ground?