Finance committee  Absolutely. One thing we've been watching closely is the fact that the U.S. economy is in a 100-month bull market right now. This is a historically long bull market. Inevitably, a recession will occur. You never know what will trigger it. Perhaps it could be rising interest rates

Finance committee  I'm quite happy you raised the A.T. Kearney report. We've looked into that. We were surprised by the findings, frankly, given what we hear from the members of our association, and there are a couple of serious flaws in that report. First of all, it was a survey of executives in

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity. We're happy with the changes made to the original proposal on passive investments, but our view is that what the government was trying to address there stems from the fact that the small business deduction continues to get used. It

Finance committee  Exactly. An independent body composed of people from the private sector and tax experts could get together and look at the tax system in its entirety and provide a report to the government and, hopefully, there would be actions on what that committee recommended. That is the best

Finance committee  On the numbers point, you're absolutely right that 2017 was a very strong year for the Canadian economy, both in terms of GDP and unemployment numbers, but we're concerned about the outlook going forward. Right now you see that GDP growth will moderate to around 2.1%, and accor

Finance committee  Yes, tax reform is definitely having the most immediate impact because it was passed, it's in force, and companies right now are staring at marginal effective tax rates that are significantly different between Canada and the U.S. NAFTA, going forward, creates more uncertainty, b

Finance committee  Absolutely. We want to see a vibrant private sector in Canada, and we want to see policies put in place that support that and support the growth of companies into global champions.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee members, thank you for the invitation to take part in your consultations on Bill C-74. The Business Council represents chief executives and entrepreneurs of 150 leading Canadian companies in all sectors and regions of the country. In the council

International Trade committee  Thank you. That's an excellent question. The reason we look at CETA and TPP as gold standard agreements is that they cover the whole range of issues outside of just tariffs and investment. CETA covers services quite comprehensively. CETA includes mutual recognition of skills. I

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely, this has been a huge problem in, frankly, the Canada–U.S. relationship, where even just bringing in a specialist from the U.S. or vice versa, sending someone to the States to set up a new line, for example, can be a challenge. It needs to be addressed. I hope CET

International Trade committee  We'd like to see it on the international side, but we have a really long way to go domestically.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  It's not fully there right now, and that's why we were quite supportive of the Canada infrastructure bank. We're hoping it will focus on large products that put emphasis on trade-enabling infrastructure—rail, ports, highways, and airports—to ensure that as Canada signs more trade

International Trade committee  It's critical, yes.

International Trade committee  Of course, trade is important, and trade agreements are important, but the fact of the matter is that due to the WTO, average tariff rates around the world have fallen now to very, very low levels. Trade agreements are really working on the margins now, and in some areas you see