Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'll be very quick, Mr. Chair. I encourage everyone on this call to visit imaginethepotential.ca. It highlights all the wonderful things that the Newfoundland and Labrador oil and gas sector is all about and has the potential to be all about.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Poilievre. I appreciate the question. As noted in my testimony a year ago, and I know several committee members were here, our membership has been consistently concerned for the past 25 years with the high amount of deficit spending. We have a survey out at the present time, and I can forward the results to the committee afterwards, once they're complete, but I would suggest that there would also be concern that high deficits and high spending today will lead to higher taxes tomorrow.

Finance committee  Yes, we feel that it might be a significant burden. I spoke with a few of our CPAs yesterday, and they highlighted that as a big concern. They said we are in a weaker position today than we were 10 years ago to come out of any type of economic recession. The CPAs are worried. They're fairly risk-averse.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to see you again and good to see the honourable committee members. Thank you for extending an invitation to me to provide evidence for your consideration today. As you just said, my name is Brandon Ellis, and I am the manager of policy and advocacy for the St.

Finance committee  Just to clarify, the fourth point was about the Trans Mountain pipeline, correct?

Finance committee  We are big supporters of oil and gas in Newfoundland and Labrador. We've seen the economic benefits of being able to get our product to market, being right on the coastline there. There are significant exports, and there is domestic distribution of oil as well. We see great value, as do our counterparts across the country as well, with being able to get oil to market.

Finance committee  Just to touch on that, I believe I read a study recently that stated—I can't cite it correctly—that there was significant increase in investment in United States coming from Canada, but not vice versa. If I can touch on the competitiveness and taxation piece, the carbon tax is a significant portion of that.

Finance committee  I don't think so.

Finance committee  No, I do not. I don't think that small businesses are able to. Small businesses pass along the cost of carbon tax to the taxpayer—to their customer. The customer will then have less money and will be able to spend less money in the economy. To further build upon your point of the carbon tax and to respond with respect to that, our province is one, if not the only province, in the entire country that is not seeing a rebate on the carbon tax or any tax breaks on the carbon tax.

Finance committee  Honourable Chair, I thank both you and the honourable committee members for giving me the opportunity to present to you today as a witness. My name is Brandon Ellis, and I am a policy and advocacy specialist with the St. John's Board of Trade. St. John's Board of Trade is a business association.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As noted, a study by the Fraser Institute has stated that this government has accumulated more debt over the past four years than any other government not in a period of recession or wartime in the history of this country. The heavy reliance of the government on the federal debt-to-GDP ratio has our membership concerned as well.