Finance committee  I would concur with what Ms. Brisebois has just said. The accelerated capital cost allowance is very advantageous for folks who are looking to invest in equipment to increase the productivity of the nation and also businesses. Simplification of the tariff system is certainly welcomed again.

Finance committee  It's gotten a lot better, for sure. I think if you look at production, for instance, our production from our member companies makes up about 35% to 37% of overall production. That has increased from maybe around 10% in the not-too-distant past.

Finance committee  There are two plants in Cambridge and one plant in Woodstock for Toyota. There are three plants, if you include the engine plant, in Honda's facility up in Alliston. I guess if you look at the plants from the other side, you would have the Oakville plant for Ford. You would have the Oshawa plant for General Motors.

Finance committee  I think what you're seeing, certainly with Honda and Toyota, in terms of manufacturing, they have also brought their supplier base here to a large extent as well. I think if you were to look at what is the most Canadian car, if there is such a thing, it would probably be the Honda Civic, because Honda also has their engine manufacturing facility up in Alliston, and the engine, of course, is a very high cost component of a vehicle.

Finance committee  There is absolutely a lot of competition, and that's the real challenge. When we have moved to a NAFTA region, for instance, even though a lot of my members are classified as importers, only about four of my members don't produce any vehicles within the NAFTA region. About 51% of all the vehicles that my members sell in Canada are produced somewhere in the NAFTA region.

Finance committee  Our membership represents the 16 international automakers in Canada. We have everybody but the Detroit-based automakers in our membership.

Finance committee  Are you talking in terms of quantity of employees?

Finance committee  You're right, it is a safety concern, for sure, and it is a concern of our members as well. I think it's somewhat ironic that on the one hand we're moving to very aggressive greenhouse gas emission standards and emission standards generally for new vehicles, while on the other hand we're allowing these older right-hand-drive vehicles to come into Canada.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, committee members, on behalf of the 16 members of the AIAMC, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. My name is David Adams, and I'm the president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada. My intent would be to highlight how our three recommendations feed into the four primary areas highlighted by the committee, to be addressed by stakeholders.

Finance committee  The CARS Council works and contributes to sustaining and creating quality jobs in the modern automotive industry in Canada, with the full support of and leveraging millions of dollars from the automotive industry as a collective. Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for your attention.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada is a national trade association that represents the Canadian interests of 14 international automobile manufacturers that manufacture, distribute, and market vehicles in Canada. Our members directly and indirectly employ some 77,000 Canadians, and through the third quarter of 2010, our members’ share of the new light-duty vehicle market stands at 53.3%.

Industry committee  Forgive me, but I do not speak French. I just want to clarify that there is a whole page in the agreement that specifies the criteria, the items that need to be taken into consideration when the price of the information is set by individual manufacturers. There are no grounds within the agreement to talk about price; that's completely outside of the agreement.

Industry committee  There may be a role for CAPC, but at this point I don't think either Mr. Wilson's association nor mine are members of CAPC. There are individual companies that are members of CAPC, but not the associations. That would have to be changed.

Industry committee  I think Matt's right. If we go back to first principles, when we had a discussion with all four parties back on April 29, the AIA made it clear that they weren't interested in moving forward with any voluntary agreement unless it was similar to the NASTF agreement. As Matt said, we tried to get it as identical as possible.

Industry committee  I think that's fair. I think you've been upfront, Mr. Masse, with identifying that as one of your concerns with the agreement. From our perspective, inasmuch as we can't bind our members to the CASIS agreement, neither can Mr. Brazeau nor Mr. Finch bind their members to the agreement.