Finance committee  Our press release said exactly that. It was in that ilk, that it was inadequate.

Finance committee  Giving money to provinces is something I've never quite understood; it's not part of our life. But it's different from doing the job as a federal government. The provinces should do what the provinces do, and the federal government should do its job. Its job is to create business

Finance committee  As we said, there are things the federal government could usefully do to help the forest industry in terms of spending, one of which would be research, another of which would be market development, another of which would be to replenish the ecoENERGY initiative so that there's en

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

Finance committee  But it doesn't let you off the hook. You're just part of the Canadian culture that thinks we don't have to--

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 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  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 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