International Trade committee  I can probably take that one because, in some of the surveying that we do, we can look at it by sector as well. I do have some of that data. Traditionally, manufacturing is by far where you are going to get most of the opportunities, and we represent about 12,000 to 13,000 small, independently owned Canadian manufacturing companies.

International Trade committee  I agree. I think e-commerce has huge potential. I think for very small firms it's actually through the Internet that they finally get exposure to other markets, and then somebody somewhere else comes to them and says, I'm interested. That's often how those conversations start. On government policy, I'm not so sure.

International Trade committee  We have some. I wouldn't say it's consistent going back a long time, but we do have some data from 2008-09, which is fairly consistent with this one from 2012. We're going to be collecting some data as well—we're doing it right now—that's going to be similar to this, so we can see if any of this has changed in the coming months as well for this past year.

International Trade committee  I know it's a tough one, but this is supposed to be focused on small and medium-sized enterprises. Too often what happens in these funding type of programs is that larger firms tend to be able to take advantage of them more quickly because they have the resources and the people to do the research and get the work done and get it in, and then the funding's gone.

International Trade committee  I'm not suggesting that everybody be broad; I think you need your specialists. The specialists can be referred to when people come from those various sectors, but you need to have a layer that can manage those more general questions that small businesses are going to have.

International Trade committee  Now you're talking about all of the other issues that we certainly work on within our organization. Even our data tells us that a good chunk—60% or so—are not ever going to get involved in export because it's just not exportable. However, definitely barriers around red tape within Canada and standards....

International Trade committee  I'll take that one. I hesitate to create a program where you're limiting which market people should go into because for some reason it's been regarded as a target market. Putting the U.S.A. aside, perhaps that's the one market you don't include because it is a bit easier, but even then I would suggest for some very small companies that's the first step they're going to take.

International Trade committee  I think what you're suggesting is correct. They don't necessarily understand, and I think a lot of these agencies are set up for a more traditional type of export firm where it's a commodity or a good, and they're doing it from Canada. They are exporting to another country. What I don't think the government, the trade commissioners, and so forth, are set up to understand is this idea of moving into supply chains and how to support those types of companies, or companies that are based here but manufacturing elsewhere, and how to support those types of companies, which are a growing part of our economy.

International Trade committee  When it comes to movement of people of course there is a lot of discussion around how easy it is to move people in and out of Canada. Some of the challenges our members have faced when it comes to the trade-related movement of people have been things along the lines of service people who were coming into Canada going into another country in order to service a piece of equipment belonging to them.

International Trade committee  Could potentially be exporters, yes.

International Trade committee  No, approximately 20%, 21% are involved in exporting.

International Trade committee  Yes, importing and exporting. It's around 60%, 62%, where they're involved in either one.

International Trade committee  Again, I think it's by working through organizations like ours. I would suggest that we, ourselves, could do a better job, but I think it's also just getting into trade publications in sectors that are more prone to trade. Manufacturing is a big one, of course. Natural resources and even agriculture are big in trade, and it's important to make sure they understand that these types of services exist.

International Trade committee  It's been a CME thing, so we haven't necessarily been as engaged on it. We have certainly let our members know, where possible, that these types of workshops exist, but we have not been active. I don't know of any members who have actively been engaged in the actual Go Global workshops.

International Trade committee  It's been one of the limitations of understanding what the export markets look like for Canadian firms. As I mentioned, the exporter register database, where most of the data that's being analyzed is coming from, does have its limitations. If you export less than $30,000 in a year, you're not included.