Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to recognize that the kinds of investments the Government of Canada has made to support businesses through this pandemic have already started paying off, from the Canada emergency business account to many other measures that support Canadian businesses.
The Bank of Canada has now revised its GDP growth forecast for the year to 6.5%. That is up from 4% it had forecast in January. We know that trade accounts for the bulk of our GDP. The last numbers I have are from Macrotrends, showing that trade accounted for about 65% of GDP in 2019. So there you go: the Bank of Canada is forecasting increased GDP growth of 6.5% against 4% it had predicted in January.
With regard to the other aspects, the minister mentioned the Canadian Commercial Corporation. In my view, that corporation has much more potential to help Canadian businesses, especially the SMEs.
The minister also mentioned that, unfortunately, this pandemic has increased the demand for protectionism from different countries, and Canada as a trading nation should be wary of this. We should be watchful.
We have already entered into many free trade agreements across the world. Can we move the resources that have been allocated in negotiating the free trade agreements in order to implement, and allow Canadian businesses to avail themselves of the benefits of, all of the free trade agreements we have signed?