Madam Speaker, I should like to make a comment on something that was said before I get to my question. In the 1980s U.S. tax policy was to lower taxes, simplify them and flatten them in a major way. It is called efficient market theory. Today the U.S. produces 35% to 40% of the world's GDP with 5% of the world's population. Whether we are talking about autos, softwood lumber or whatever, Canada is very dependent on the robust healthy economy of the U.S. I would like to see Canada get that economic growth participation and the population base to go with it.
We only have 30 million people. The U.S. has 300 million. Very often we forget that point. Our population is not growing and we do not have a very large market. We have to find a way of getting a market in this country.
My colleague raised something that I do not know a whole lot about. I would ask him to enlighten the House on it.
In Saskatchewan, the Bill Gates Foundation contributed something like $20 million. The money was invested in remote communities in rural Saskatchewan, which include a lot of first nations communities, to provide computers and get individuals on the Internet. It is something the government talks a lot about, but we do not have a lot of evidence of it. However Mr. Gates and his foundation made that a reality in Saskatchewan.
I am very interested in the whole idea of foundations. Rather than bureaucrats and government dictating and determining where investments go, we could get those people who have shown they can create wealth and produce goods and services to get the economy going. To have people like Mr. Gates, Mr. Buffett, or someone along those lines with a foundation making those sorts of decisions in our economy could spawn some things. I was very interested in the hon. member's comments in that regard. Maybe he would enlighten us on how the bill would encourage that sort of development in our nation.