Thank you very much for appearing today.
I would note that in Mr. Verheul's opening comments he mentioned that Canada was presented with, I believe he said, two options. One of those options was the withdrawal from NAFTA, and the other one was the renegotiation, which resulted in what we now know as CUSMA.
We know that the impact of a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would have been substantial, and we know that U.S. tariffs were a reality. I know that my colleagues have often made reference to other private-sector studies, but I would like to point to something that the RBC said: “A 4% across-the-board increase in tariffs between Canada and the U.S.—roughly equivalent [to] a reversion from NAFTA to WTO tariff rates—could reduce Canadian GDP growth by about 1% over 5 to 10 years”.
Your analysis in your report indicates a few qualitative and quantitative gaps, and that you weren't able to fully quantify investment-climate factors. That said, you do indicate the importance of this agreement, and I was wondering if you could speak a little more about how these factors would have impacted our Canadian economy.