Finance committee  In our case, it amounts to 600,000 jobs. That's 600,000 jobs in the service sector. I can't give you an exact number, but that's the order of magnitude. We have 300,000 direct. The 600,000 indirect is almost all service sector. Every time a forestry guy loses his job, two servic

Finance committee  If that included the measures we put forward, we would agree.

Finance committee  Yes, and if these additional measures are taken immediately, they would be welcome. If it comes in the next fiscal update, a little later, we'll still give them a hug and a kiss. I don't want to get you guys too excited now.

Finance committee  I just want to say that's one of the best things that have happened in a long time. We've been suffering because of the unfettered power of the railways. This creates fairness. It means that with final offer arbitration, the reasonable gets to win as opposed to the powerful. I ha

Finance committee  Arbitrators will do what they will. We're not particularly unhappy with it. We would have liked to win all of it. We have noticed in the current market that hanging onto this agreement for a few years is going to be important. Not everyone was happy with the terms of the agreeme

Finance committee  The pine beetle epidemic is proceeding apace. They've been slowed down a little bit by weather. We don't know where they're going to go or how far, because the specialists in this area have been wrong almost every time. The numbers have exploded to such an extent that what is a v

Finance committee  We certainly feel just as impatient with provincial governments as we do with the federal government about improving the tax system and the competitiveness climate. We are occasionally as grouchy with them as we are sometimes with the federal government--not because we don't love

Finance committee  I appreciate the question.

Finance committee  I have two quick answers to that. They haven't turned us down, but they've put such a chill in it that people look elsewhere. They've also said to companies, “That's enough; no more Canadian acquisitions.” So what that's leading to is our better mills being taken over by offs

Finance committee  If I may, we appeared at one of your hearings and we said there is some room for flexibility in where the dollar goes. There is a range within which government can responsibly influence, and as a small, open exporting economy, we should influence it toward the bottom of that rang

Finance committee  It all depends on the circumstances. There's no yes and no to that one.

Finance committee  What really exacerbates it is the lack of intention in the States, where they have so much surplus, because we export most of what we make. But yes, of course the lack of demand in Canada exacerbates it. The reason we're so worried about this recession and wanting to see so muc

Finance committee  Sure, and I can probably do it relatively quickly. The Competition Bureau reviews applications for companies to merge. Their job is to make certain that merging will not lessen competition in Canada and lead to a rise in prices. Because most of what we do is exported, most of t

Finance committee  I'd say that as a country we're negligent. The Liberals got the deficit under control and took steps, and you guys have been taking steps. But as a country we're just a little too comfortable: the provincial governments are too comfortable, industry was too comfortable when the d

Finance committee  No, not quite: you're ending it too quickly; you're not doing it too quickly. The capital cost allowance two-year writeoff needs the longer window for people to gather the cash and do the projects. If Advantage Canada were moving with more aggressiveness and more speed, you woul