Mr. Jerry J. Ouellette: Before I begin, I'd just like to say to our visiting delegation: 'as-sal?mu-calaykum.

My question is for the Premier. Less than three weeks ago, the CAW and General Motors workers signed an agreement that was found to be null and void 16 days later. During that agreement, the CAW workers made substantial concessions in the vacation area, the wages area and the benefits packages as well.

Premier, the province of Ontario used to have a considerable advantage, whether it was through WSIB or through OHIP. Workers in other jurisdictions are now seeing that and are eliminating those competitive advantages for the province of Ontario. Premier, what is your plan to give the auto sector and the manufacturing sector that competitive advantage to make sure we' re strong in the future?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

Hon. Sandra Pupatello: I think it's important to note that a few months ago we were able to table in this House an economic update-that was last December-followed by a budget that was tabled in this House. On both of those occasions, we embedded in those budget documents initiatives that would lower business costs for Ontario. These are the kinds of initiatives that were hailed by business communities, saying "This is exactly what we need." They pointed out very specific items they were looking for. One of them was the elimination of the capital tax. That was made retroactive to January 1, 2007. An organization about the size of General Motors had a savings of some $10 million. These