Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Despite being fairly weak over 2012–13, Canada's economy relative to other advanced economies is still doing very well. Again, despite exports being fairly weak in that year because of global developments, the domestic economy, which is consumption and investment by business, has been fairly strong in Canada's housing sector. It was kind of slowing at that time, but it was also contributing to growth. Those domestic conditions were good and supported the economy through that year. As a result, as many of our documents show, since the beginning of the recovery, Canada has been the best country in the G–7, relative to employment gain or GDP gain.
Effectively, we have been doing fairly well. Again, it's reflected in the domestic economy more than the export side, which has been fairly weak, apart from that year.