Finance committee  There has definitely been an increase in e-commerce during the pandemic. Many small businesses have also been able to adapt in doing this too: small businesses of all types, and those in rural communities as well, which are being able to access customers and markets that might not previously have been possible.

Finance committee  Absolutely. First of all, Anita is one of the greatest champions of the chamber network across the country. She's great. As sometimes happens, the business community might be one step ahead in terms of doing this. You may have noticed that just this morning we announced a task force that is going to be looking at Canada-U.S. relations when it comes to economic recovery and a number of different areas, including infrastructure, including a green recovery, including opening the border when it comes time to do so.

Finance committee  Sorry, can you just repeat the question?

Finance committee  In terms of government investments, certainly there are some things that can help with that: like I mentioned, investments in broadband infrastructure, for instance, enhancing productivity over the longer term, and also economic opportunity. There are certainly other things that could be useful that don't even have to do with government investments or spending.

Finance committee  Yes, I do. First of all, even though we see business investment going up in the short term, it's because of increased demand. The key to attracting foreign and domestic investment over the medium or longer term will be, instead of having people invest in Canada because consumer demand is going up, having them invest in Canada because the investment conditions are competitive compared with those anywhere else that they can put their money.

Finance committee  No. Our position has always been that even though this might be a jurisdictional provincial-territorial issue, many businesses are looking for national leadership on the reduction of interprovincial trade barriers. Certainly, studying what barriers might exist and what might be the way to reduce them—not only including what we traditionally think about as interprovincial trade barriers, but also labour market barriers—would, I think, be appreciated, and the Canadian Chamber would be happy to participate in such a study.

Finance committee  Certainly central banks in Canada and all over the world have pursued quantitative easing, and we saw how this tool can be used successfully to address economic downturns during the 2008 crisis. That being said, a lot of central bankers themselves would agree that there are limits to how much government debt central banks can buy.

Finance committee  That's a great question. I think this is an issue that actually existed in Canada pre-pandemic as well. We have historically had lower productivity levels than the United States, for instance. Our productivity levels have actually been diverging from those in the United States since around 2011, because of some of the competitive policies that have been put in place down south to encourage investment in both technologies and skills.

Finance committee  Absolutely. It's important to keep in mind that not all types of spending are stimulus. I don't know of any economist who is saying turn off the spending taps. There are obviously a lot of Canadians and businesses out there still needing support. However, support programs aren't meant to be stimulus.

Finance committee  Global demand is also projected to rise in the second half of this year. Economic growth projections have been revised upwards for the second half of this year as well. In Canada, we see demand being projected to increase later on as well, for similar reasons. Leaving stimulus aside for a second, what's very important to me and what I'm concerned about is what's called economic scarring.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I would agree with those remarks about the potential economic benefit of removing interprovincial trade barriers. There are many people who have said this. The International Monetary Fund has also looked at this and estimated that it can add about 4% of real GDP per capita to Canada's economy.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's a pleasure to be here today. The Government of Canada and, indeed, all members of Parliament must be recognized for the work that they have done in providing support to businesses and Canadians during this unprecedented and very uncertain time.

Finance committee  A national strategy is very good because we need to have all the provinces on board when it comes to this. Obviously, there are jurisdictional issues when it comes to that. I would certainly advocate that, when we're putting together that national strategy, it very much focuses on any funding going directly to child care providers and also that it is not creating a federal program for it but looking at jurisdictional issues and implementing it in that way.

Finance committee  I think it would depend on what it looks like. If we're talking about child care, for instance, I know we've certainly been advocating for the funding, if there is funding, going directly to day cares or going directly to families, as opposed to creating some sort of national child care program.

Finance committee  We are certainly in favour of the digital sales tax that was just announced. When it comes to corporate taxes, I think it's very important to understand that there is also an international conversation taking place at the OECD as part of the larger BEPS process for taxation where they're discussing this very issue of corporate taxation for digital technology companies.