Thank you very much, Madam Chair,
Committee members, it's great to be back here and doing our very important work.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for their incredible testimony this afternoon. You each brought something really unique to the table. I thank you to each and every one of you for that.
Obviously, as many of you know, my riding of Essex is very close to the busiest international border crossing for trade in all of North America, along with that of my excellent colleague Mr. Masse.
Many of my questions that I'll be focusing on will be with regard to our region. Although I know this is much bigger than just Windsor-Essex, that's really where it starts. There is no reason in the world why Essex-Windsor really shouldn't continue to be the global leader in not only the assembly plants of today but also the assembly plants of tomorrow for EVs, so I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for that.
This is really interesting tonight. I hear about a $6-billion investment, and $4 billion from what I understand for Ontario alone, but with regard to my consultations with at least a few of you before this call, I do understand that it's really about ensuring that we're completely aligned with United States.
I could go on for a long time, but I only have six minutes, and probably just five now. Nonetheless, my first question is this, Mr. Kingston. You spoke about reducing this “price gap”. You said that we have to reduce the price gap. I understand that.
There's been quite a bit of talk about the United States' potential tax rebate of $12,500. I'm going to switch gears here, sir. I'm going to talk about the luxury tax. If we're going to reduce the price gap within Canada so that we're more competitive, what would be your comment with regard to the potential proposed luxury tax on vehicles, only because I'm convinced that an EV is going to be north of $100,000?