Agriculture committee  I'm not sure. The Competition Bureau looks to determine if an industry is too concentrated as opposed to fragmented. Those are the two terms. A fragmented industry is where you have many competitors. With regard to the grocery industry—and I just looked up that data again this mo

Agriculture committee  Well, actually, I don't. For 35 years I've taught what Michael Porter believes and Joseph Schumpeter believed, which is that firms do not exist to make profit. They do not exist to maximize shareholder wealth. I've been teaching this in every course for 35 years. Firms exist to c

Agriculture committee  They're two different issues. The OECD average, of course, is the average of the different countries, and we are below the average, because there are countries above the average. I specifically cited France, the U.K. and Germany, which are significantly higher. Their cost structu

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I hope you can hear me now. Is that acceptable?

Agriculture committee  Thank you. I already provided my disclosures about not consulting, not being partisan and not belonging to any political party. I'll cut right to the chase. I've taught the strategy course for the past 35 years at Carleton, where we analyze individual companies using the audite

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Chair and committee members, for inviting me to discuss this important subject. First are my disclosures: I do not consult to any person, firm or association in the agri-food value chain system in Canada; I do not have any investments in any firms anywhere in any ind

Finance committee  I've written several op-eds on this. I have one under review right now at The Globe and Mail on this very issue. I don't believe that support on the demand side is going to help the problem. It's throwing gasoline on the fire. We have an empirical, measurable shortage of housing

Finance committee  This may surprise you, but I'm in complete agreement. Lest anyone here think that I'm saying Ian Lee, professor, wants everyone to go back to university, a shout-out to Mr. Strickland and his industry. I don't think we need more people at university, and I'm probably going to get

Finance committee  My son has a Red Seal, too, by the way, in carpentry, so I'm very aware of the Red Seal program. The community colleges have done an amazing job in this country. They're one of the great unsung heroes, and we should be celebrating them. Unfortunately, in the last 30 years, as yo

Finance committee  The World Bank has done massive studies on this and poverty alleviation around the world. They have shown that competitive, productive markets have removed over one billion people around the world—and I think it's a billion and a half—from the lowest levels of poverty. You look

Finance committee  I understand the Laffer Curve is controversial. I won't even use the Laffer Curve. Governments—federal, provincial and municipal—share in the growth. You look at the revenues, the sensitivity in western economies, and Canada is exhibit A. That is to say, when the economy is gro

Finance committee  Well, what we saw in the 1970s.... I don't want to get into who caused it, because I don't think that's fruitful. I don't believe Canada caused the inflation of the 1970s, but I and many others believe that we exacerbated it. I don't believe that Canada caused it this time either

Finance committee  No. I'm very worried about it. I have no dog in this hunt, to use Bill Clinton's famous phrase. I don't belong to any political party. I don't consult anybody. I teach at Carleton. I do research. I'm very much following Anne McLellan. I thought her comments were absolutely spo

Finance committee  Yes. I lived through it in the 1970s. I lived through it in the seventies, and we experienced that throughout the seventies. Central banks and senior decision-makers were saying it was under control, and in fact, wage and price controls were declared, six per cent and five per ce

Finance committee  I've been using the OECD in my courses since I started teaching 34 years ago. I want to be very clear. I've never advocated saying that we shouldn't be spending on income support. I just looked up a number very quickly, because I anticipated this question. This is from StatsC