Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the speech by my colleague, with whom I have the opportunity to work on the Standing Committee on Finance. Our economy has indeed performed extremely well in the past decade, thanks to the concerted efforts of people across the country.
But times have changed. The United States is on the brink of recession, and Canada's manufacturing and forestry industries are in a major crisis. The government acknowledged as much this morning when it decided to make the $1 billion trust fund available more quickly, before the budget is tabled.
Last year, there were warning signs. The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology produced a unanimous report with 22 recommended measures for the Minister of Finance to include in the budget. But they were not in the budget. We expected to see them in the economic statement in the fall, but only one recommendation was implemented.
Does my colleague not recognize that Canada needs much stronger action now and that our businesses need a tax base that will promote research and development?
When the current government decided to reduce corporate taxes across the board, it was using one of the tools at its disposal. The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology had stated unanimously that this was not the priority, because it would give money to businesses that already made huge profits, but it would not encourage less profitable companies to increase their R&D.
Does my colleague not recognize that refundable tax credits for research and development would give our businesses a tremendous boost? Is this not one of the measures the government absolutely must put in place as soon as possible, using this year's surplus, now that it has $3 billion to pay down the debt and it could spend $2 billion to help businesses in the same way, without hurting—