Finance committee  Sorry, for clarification, is the question about commodity taxes or about infrastructure?

Finance committee  A lot of things can be done. In terms of using cash, normally businesses will spend money when they feel the business environment is safe and they tend to delay investment decisions in times of uncertainty.

Finance committee  There are various things that could be done. The government could encourage corporations to spend cash by offering incentives to investing in infrastructure that includes Canadian productivity; encouraging manufacturers to upgrade more efficient and environmentally sound equipmen

Finance committee  Yes, but we also can't be complacent.

Finance committee  We were quite pleased with ourselves coming into the last recession, but you know, when our neighbour to the south sneezes, we catch cold. When European economies are weak, it impacts us. So we have to be prepared.

Finance committee  Definitely. In our discussions concerning productivity, one of the first things we talked about was a review of the tax act and the tax simplification issues, which we've already talked about.

Finance committee  That would include consolidated tax reporting, etc.

Finance committee  We would like to think so, yes.

Finance committee  I should mention that actually Minister Flaherty is an honorary member of our organization.

Finance committee  Certainly Canada has fared far better than many of the other G-7s.

Finance committee  That would be.... I don't know how Mr. Knight would grade you—

Finance committee  —but we are concerned that there are still brackets. We are concerned that the recent forecast showed a bit of a slip from what the plan was going to be.

Finance committee  We're certainly moving in the right direction, and we'd encourage...to continue to do so, because the next recession will happen sooner or later. It's better to get the books in order to be well prepared again.

Finance committee  The biggest cause is it hasn't been reviewed for a very long time. There are sections that need to eliminate measures that no longer achieve desired policy objectives. You need to consolidate measures that have grown so many arms they can be scaled back, for example, the number o

Finance committee  Actually, each subsequent budget makes it fatter and fatter and fatter, and nobody goes back and trims out the tree.