Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, everybody, for coming here today.
The committee is certainly benefiting from your testimony today in getting an understanding of the actual reality on the ground and in getting help in coming up with recommendations we can present to the government, to the public, and to the industry on what the committee thinks needs to be implemented or done.
I heard a lot of things today that I personally agree with. I heard about the fact that we need to find middle ground. We cannot assume that direct subsidies will solve this issue. They are going to be short-term patches and they won't be effective. We also cannot assume that letting the market resolve these issues on its own will be a solution, because unfortunately other countries in the world are not doing the same. If we look the other way for a short period, we may lose the industry in Canada. We need to find the middle ground; we need to find a business climate--this is terminology all of you have used today--and find a way to have the federal government partner with the industry players or stakeholders so that we can overcome this transitional period.
Perhaps to help us as we come up with recommendations, I need to throw at you some ideas based on what I heard from you, and you can tell me if this would work or not. I'd like to hear from all three organizations represented here.
One of the ideas I heard today was to create incentives for private investment, whether foreign or domestic. The federal government can play a role in creating those incentives, whether in tax breaks or in partnership. How does that sound to the witnesses?