International Trade committee  Could I just add to that? Our ultimate goal here should be that we want SMEs to turn into large companies.

International Trade committee  We want to support SMEs. We're a small business economy and they're critical to our economy, but the fact of the matter is that only 2.3% of our exporting companies are large businesses and they're responsible for 60% of exports. Let's find ways to grow those SMEs into global cha

International Trade committee  On the tax front, the ideal outcome would have been a comprehensive review of the tax system to ensure that Canada has one of the most competitive systems in the world. If you look at our combined statutory corporate tax rate, it still sits above the OECD average, so to say that

International Trade committee  The fall economic statement yesterday highlighted 23 areas where the government intends to accelerate its regulatory reform process, with a focus on agri-food, medical devices and medical equipment, and the transportation sector. That's a great place to start. Of course, there's

International Trade committee  In terms of raising awareness, yesterday's announcement goes some of the way to addressing that, by giving the trade commissioner service more funding so that it can hire more people and be out in the community making companies aware of the services that are provided. The other

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thanks for the invitation to take part in your study on connecting SMEs to new markets. The Business Council of Canada, as you know, represents chief executives and entrepreneurs from 150 leading Canadian companies, from all sectors an

Finance committee  Sorry, my French is not good enough to talk tax. I'll have to respond in English. One model we've looked at is the U.K. model. They've introduced the “patent box” regime and it seems to be having some effect. Essentially what you're doing is giving a favourable tax rate to compa

Finance committee  No, not at all. I would absolutely not say that. If there were things in here that affected our access to the U.S. market, we would have said so. The fact is, free trade remains between Canada and the U.S., and that was the fundamental piece we had to secure.

Finance committee  Absolutely. So much attention has been focused on NAFTA, but the PwC study shows that in the event we didn't get an agreement and there was no longer free trade between the U.S. and Canada, the effect would have actually been 10 times smaller than the effect of not responding to

Finance committee  It's a great question. There's one key metric that we've used to measure the NAFTA negotiations, and that has to do with certainty and uncertainty. With these negotiations under way, companies were holding off making investments in new facilities or building existing capacity bec

Finance committee  Number one is to introduce immediate expensing, and then number two is to launch a comprehensive review of the tax system. With regard to your point on the fiscal situation, we by no means recommend doing what the U.S. has done. I've just come from New York, from meeting with U.

Finance committee  Sure. I don't have the exact numbers on me, but we know that last year was the worst year for FDI inflows into Canada since the financial crisis. In addition, a lot of that has been driven by a lack of capital investment since 2015 and the oil price shock in the energy industry.

Finance committee  Yes, I was talking about FDI flows, foreign direct investment inflows.

Finance committee  The discount has been a huge concern for us and for our members. We've been recommending for years that infrastructure be built to get oil and gas to foreign markets. We've advocated for a process of one project, one review. That still is not the case in Canada. Much work needs t

Finance committee  Yes.